Why do people say "Please excuse my french when most english profanity is derived from German?

Answer 1

I say...... we should blame everything on the French!! LOL

Answer 2

T'was well before WW1...during the war Joan of Arc fought in, the French would show their middle fingers and say "pluck you" - this was mocking, as the English would cut offf the middle finger of captured Frech archers so they could not pull a bow. This is where "fu*k you" came from.

There has been a long standing fued between teh French and Brits for centuries. What we call a frech kiss, the French call an English kiss. What is known as a French letter (condom) in england, is called an English letter in France. Basically, they hate each other, so they mock each other by saying these things. So, when you swear, its "pardon my French." In France, when you swear, its "excuse-moi Englais!"

And, uh, most profanity is not derived from German. Just look at example above. F U C K also has another derivation: Fornication Under Consent of King - was a common law in feudal England, where the King had first crack at your wife on your wedding night. CRAP came from the Calorific Recovery of the Anerobic Process...a man attempting to use dung to burn as fuel sources. Check your sources!

Answer 3

Because the French are often stereotypically associated with indecency, especially of a sexual nature.

The word French in English has long been used in sexual references. The expression French pox or French disease, for syphilis or other venereal diseases, is the oldest, which dates all the way back to 1500. A number of terms developed in the nineteenth century, including French letter for a condom and French print for a pornographic picture.

The use of French to mean 'blunt or offensive language', which is now found exclusively in the expression "excuse (or pardon) my French," is first found in the 1860s. Though it does not necessarily refer to sexually indecent terms (many of the early examples refer to religious blasphemy), the main suggestion of the word French was probably taken as 'offensive' rather than 'sexual' in this context.

Though this sense of French is first recorded in America, it is not specifically an American usage; Joyce used it in Ulysses, for example.

Answer 4

I believe in started in Word War One (I). The French language is used in place of other foreign languages due to the English-speaking world's view of the French culture as sexually and verbally permissive. In the late 19th century, Anglo-Saxons blamed the French for anything that could be considered remotely dirty. The belief began in the mid 19th century that the French were sex-obsessed. "Pardon my French" started becoming common on both sides of the Atlantic around 1916, and might have stemmed from the World War I escapades of American and British soldiers.

Answer 5

It's a late 19th century euphemism which first appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1895.

It is thought that the term French is employed in this sense as it
already had a history of association with things considered vulgar.

As far back as the early 16th century, French pox and the French disease were synonyms for genital herpes, and French-sick was another term for syphillis. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] also equates the adjective French with "spiciness", as in French letter for "condom", French kiss (1923) and French (i. e. "sexually explicit") novels (from 1749).

Answer 6

Who on earth told you that most English profanity is derived from German?

It is simply not true.

Answer 7

when people say please excuse my french its not because profanity is derived from german its just a saying in the real world

Answer 8

French people curse in German, alot. With great exuberance.

Answer 9

The word fuc means seal in French.

Answer 10

Germans probably made up that expression.