pardon my French
English
editEtymology
editFrom the use of French to mean “vulgar language”, ostensibly because the words used are not in English.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌpɑːdn̩ maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌpɑɹd(ə)n maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛntʃ
- Hyphenation: par‧don my French
Verb
editpardon my French (third-person singular simple present pardons my French, present participle pardoning my French, simple past and past participle pardoned my French)
- (intransitive, idiomatic, often humorous) To excuse the speaker's frankness of expression or profanity.
- Synonyms: excuse my français, excuse my French, pardon mon français, pardon my français, pardonnez my French
- That computer is a worthless piece of shit, if you’ll pardon my French.
- 1960, Diana Holman-Hunt, chapter 6, in My Grandmothers and I, London: Hamish Hamilton, published 1988, →ISBN, page 162:
- 'Have you been in England long?' / 'A damned sight too long—if you'll pardon my French,' she answered.
- 1986 June 11, John Hughes, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, spoken by Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick):
- Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.
Translations
editto excuse the speaker’s frankness of expression or profanity
See also
editFurther reading
edit- pardon my French on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “pardon my French, pardon (also excuse) my French.” under “French, adj. and n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
- “pardon my French, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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- Rhymes:English/ɛntʃ
- Rhymes:English/ɛntʃ/4 syllables
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