French n.
1. syphilis.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Letting of Humours Blood 15: This Gentleman hath serued long in Fraunce, And is returned filthy full of French. | |
| Honest Whore Pt 1 I ii: A harlot [...] swallowes [...] the French, And he sticks to you faith: giues you your diet, Brings you acquainted, first with monsier Doctor, And then you know what follows. | |
| Ratseys Ghost F2: [He is] troubled with the french. | |
| Crew of Kind Gossips 18: Taffity Queanes, and fine light silken Whores, That haue the gift of pox in their owne pores, and can teach French in halfe a day. | |
| Satyres n.p.: [He] late returned ... A compleat Linguist: skilfull in the Dutch. And more (if you knew all) for wot yee what? In the Low-cuntry’s hee the French hath got. | |
 | Knot of Fooles B4: A right ’urnbullian Hackney; or some Spittle wench, (Was ne’re in France, yet perfect in the French). | |
| Covent-Garden Weeded I i: Is this the Damsel that has been in France and Italy? | |
| Rebellion of Naples III i: What a pox do we care for the French? or the French with a pox? | |
| Citie Matrons 7: Was it a French Winchester Goose you so used for the service of this Honorable Citie? | |
| Life and death of Damaris Page 4: To meddle with no idle lustful VVench, / That takes in English, and pays back in French. | |
| ‘Dissolution’ in Additional Mss 34362.49: French runs thro the Princes veines And He by theirs not our Law Raignes When French creeps into Royall bed First charmeing Codpiece then the head. | |
| Match in Newgate I i: Do you give them English Coin, they’ll repay you with the French ... And they only sell their Bodies. | |
| Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 58: The chief Motive of my leaving her was the Present of a New-Year’s-Gift she made me; but whether French or Neopolitan, I leave to the Determination of the Sons of Galen. | |
| Machine 6: From Indian Pox, or Malady of France. | |
| Nimble and Quick 3: The greatest enemies whores have, are the French and Small-pox. |
2. brandy.
| Hudibras Redivivus I:4 17: A Bowl of Punch was next my Treat, / Made of right French, upon my Word. | |
| Amorous Bugbears 6: We revok’d our first Orders, and call’d for a Flask of French. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Fire Trumpet II 31: What’s it to be—‘French’—Whisky? | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 198: He [...] asked us for a drop of French. |
3. taboo language.
| implied in excuse my French | |
| Riverina Recorder (Balranald, NSW) 30 Jan. 2/5: [H]e couldn’t get any water to wash the soap off and had to go to bed sticky and bathless [...] he used bad French. | |
| ‘The Broadcaster’ [music hall song] French lessons for schools are by Monsieur Jules, / And all of you know what his French is: / It’s nice and refined — not a bit like the kind / The Tommies use out in the trenches. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Disassembled Man [ebook] I said something to him in French: Fuck you and the cow you rode in on. |
4. (also French art, full French) fellatio (cf. Frenching n.).
| Sl. of Venery. | |
| Transcript Dunn Inquiry in Perverts by Official Order (1989) 33: Zipf asked if the older man would like to take him, to which the response was ‘any way.’ ‘French,’ replied the operator. | |
| ‘Investigator Reports, 1927–9’ Committee of Fourteen Papers 7 Feb. 45–6: He asked her, ‘Do you French?’ (street slang for oral sex) and she said, ‘Yes, more than that.’ [The investigator] asked her what she meant and she claimed to be a ‘three way girl.’ He asked her to be specific and she explained, ‘the natural way, and up the rectum and french.’. | |
| ‘Mme. Dora in “Strictly Business”’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 75: What do you want honey? Straight, French or any other? | |
| Hist. of Rome Hanks 47: Jazz or French, baby? | |
| USA Confidential 199: The price is $5 regular, $10 French, $15 combination. | |
| Cast the First Stone 205: ‘Do you French?’ I said [...] ‘Four dollars for French. O.K. for four dollars for a Frenchy?’. | |
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 21: Yoo-hoo, pritty baby, you wanna lil french? | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 34: Act of sucking the penis until ejaculation [...] French art[s] (‘Are you well versed in the French arts?’). | |
| Digger’s Game (1981) 77: You wanna get the best French inna desert? | |
| Orderly House 34: The term ‘Hat Job’ ... [means] a Full French [HDAS]. | |
| personal ad, restroom Lang. Sadomasochism (1989) 73: I’m SWM [...] kard and heavily into the French arts, no pain, wirdos or gays. | |
| ‘Signifyin’ Monkey’ 🎵 He said he saw yo aunt sittin on the fence / Givin a goddamn zebra a french. | |
| Straight Outta Compton 69: That’s why he left: she had given him some French and sliced him to pieces. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Rubdown [ebook] Full service [...] Massage, French, then sex. Client pays one-eighty for the hour. |
5. cunnilingus.
| in Chicago Defender 29 Aug. 18: The crafty linguist won’t bite. He says she wants French but he won’t teach — not for six bits a lesson! |
6. pornography.
| Maledicta III:2 218: We use French for ‘oral copulation’ (fellatio – the gay graffito is Fellatio et ergo cum) and for pornography in general. |
In phrases
a genteel euph. automatically offered after the speaker has sworn (or in earlier used offensive language, e.g. ‘liar’) in public.
| [ | | New Eng. Mag. 4 460: I need not expatiate on my gift at pleasing the feminine gender; ‘Verbum sat,’ (excuse my French!)]. |
| Port Phillip Gaz. (Vic.) 8 May 2/3: Am I now to be ordered to salute any monkey jacket, or monkey in a jacket, that hopped on the top of a barrel organ, or jumped to the tune of a hirdy girdy ? Never, so help me Betty; excuse my French. | |
| Buffalo Commercial(NY) 5 Apr. 2/3: The people will vote themselves back into the Union, and all but South Carolina, and let her go to the devil (excuse my French). | |
| Dly Intelligencer (Wheeling, VA) 27 May 2/2: Time has not only shown that he is a false prophet, but a systematic liar! Gentlemen, you must excuse my bad French — (loud laughter). | |
| Marion Rooke 342: Dreadful good brandy o’ yourn. Ha! ha! ha! My respecks. Excuse my French. | |
| Belgravia Mag. 447: Then and now are different; things isn’t like they used to was. Excuse my French! | |
| Somebody Else 230: What a damnable bungle! — Excuse my French, Miss Renfrew. I don’t know what I’m about. | |
| Taunton Courier 25 Apr. 3/3: And blasted well he did it too. Excuse my French. | |
| Harper’s Mag. Mar. 648/1: Palaces be durned! Excuse my French. | |
| Laurens Advertiser (SC) 15 Jan. 4/3: A man same as we are, only a dashed sight — excuse my French, parson [etc.]. | |
| New Ulm Rev. (MN) 6 Dec. 4/1: ‘Please excuse my French, but blamed if I know,’ was the reply. | |
| Woman’s Enterprise (Baton Rouse, LA) 1 Aug. 1/3: Let me say right here, excuse my French, we’ve had a diable of a trip! | |
| ‘A Summer for the Dead’ Sleep of Baby Filbertson and Other Stories (1964) 60: Not very damn many, honey, excuse my French. | |
| in Catalog Copyright Entries (Library of Congress) (1956) 142: Pardon my French ; an incident in the life of the Grove family by Michael and Roland Pertwee . 21 p . A play . Samuel French , Ltd .; 30Sep55. | |
| Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 33: The whole damn’ lot including the Christopher medal I had since I was a bloody kid ... excuse the French. | |
| Snakes (1971) 73: That old dope, and then you dont do nothin but go from sugar to shit, if youll excuse my French. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Breathing Spaces 165: Not pygmalion likely, if you’ll excuse my French. | |
| Picture Palace 30: ‘I know goddamned well what he meant, pardon my French’. | |
| Maledicta III:2 159: Frenchn Profanity, oaths, obscenity; ‘Pardon my French.’. | |
| (con. WW2) Heart of Oak [ebook] The navy wasn’t in the fucking trenches, were they? Excuse my French. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 50: Any fuckin’ one of ’em would make her pussy pucker ... excuse my French. | |
| Skull Session 277: ‘Holy shit,’ Mo said. ‘Excuse my French.’. | |
| Night Dogs 10: [T]he son of a bitch–pardon my French–out in the county, who shot himself in the kitchen and left the stove on. | |
| Stalker (2001) 208: She thought he was a piss bucket, excuse my French. | |
| ‘The Detail’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 2 [TV script] Pardon my French, but I got no fuckin’ problem giving that asshole up at this point. | |
| Sun. Wife 76: Goddammit, Augusta, how could do such a thing? [...] Excuse my French, Preacher. | |
| Atomic Lobster 96: I hate the fucking Da Vinci Code [...] Pardon my French. Actually it’s Anglo-Saxon. | |
| Attack the Block [film script] 11: Walking around with knives, great big dogs, like they own the block. Excuse my French, but they’re fucking monsters, aren’t they? | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | (con. 1980s) Skagboys 132: Ye cannae fuckin explain it tae maist cunts, pardon my French, he apologises. | |
| ‘The Bottom of My Heart’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] ‘Fuck if I know, pardon my French’. | |
| Base Nature [ebook] E‘xcusez my French, nothing personal’. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 101: ‘The hell that go to do with anythin [...] Pardon my French’. |
to become infected with syphilis.
| Whoremongers Conuersion in Roxburghe Ballads (1871) I 478: They’le learne you so much parly French, From you shall come a rotten stench [...] at Pickt-hatch I [...] Learn’d French of one that ne’r saw France. | |
| Wit Revived 38: What place is said to be worse to learn French in? The Low Countries’. |
to have oral sex.
| Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Nov. n.p.: the whip wants to know Whether he can speak French yet? — [...] she did the best she [i.e. a prostitute] could to make him remember the lessons she gave him. | |
| Maledicta IX 54: French, speak v phr [D, ca. 1914] Indulge in unconventional sexual play. | |
| whisper.sh 7 Mar. 🌐 I wanna speak French between her legs. |
(US) to give fellatio or cunnilingus.
| Elizabeth Wisebourn (1885) 6: She being unequal to the fatigues of [woman-to-woman cunnilingus] she was advis’d to call [on] some Sage and Understanding Man, who could talk French and High Dutch, who was a favourite of the Ladies and qualify’d for such an Imploy. | |
| (con. 1944) Naked and Dead 229: You come up next time, and I’ll talk a little French to you. |