Idiom
pardon my French
Meaning
To excuse the speaker's frankness of expression or profanity.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Pardon my French, but this situation is a total mess.”
“Pardon my French, but that was a damn stupid mistake to make in front of the boss.”
“Pardon my French, but the sheer incompetence displayed during the negotiations was, quite frankly, infuriating to everyone involved.”
Examples
simple
“Pardon my French, but this situation is a total mess.”
contextual
“Pardon my French, but that was a damn stupid mistake to make in front of the boss.”
complex
“Pardon my French, but the sheer incompetence displayed during the negotiations was, quite frankly, infuriating to everyone involved.”
Origin
From the 19th-century usage of French to serve as a euphemism for vulgar language. The term functions as a linguistic deflection, ostensibly suggesting that any profanity uttered by the speaker is not actually English but belongs to a foreign tongue.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated