French Language?

[society]

Why when people use words like fvck, sh1t, hel1 etc. say pardon my French? Do those words belong to the French vocabulary?

[Doc Spock]

No, but, as you say, it is interesting that people say" pardon my french".

I make no apologies for this educational addition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****

[Doc Spock]

How strange that that has been edited. I googled what is the french word for fcuk.

[society]

Thanks for that Birthday Boy! :-)

[chitchat]

And I just thought we blamed the French for everything!

[taichiperson]

No, they're not Fench, it's just part of the age-old rivalry between the French and English. It implies that they are more likely to swear or use bad language than the 'well-bred' English. And of course the French will say the same of the English. If Quizmonster is around, I'm sure he(?) will be able to explain it better.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, I'd say pretty much the same as you have done, Taichi.
It has long been the case that nations blame their neighbours - especially those very close and against whom wars have been fought - for all sorts of failings. Thus, we make fun of �Dutch courage', which appears only if the Dutchman is drunk. Similarly, our slang for a condom includes the word �French' and theirs includes �English'. When we skive off, we take �French leave' and when they do, they take �English leave'.
�Pardon my French' is very much in the same mould. The suggestion is that there is no such thing as a �bad word' in English, so - if someone imagines they heard one - they must have misheard it as French...or "I was really speaking French!"

[Quizmonster]

It is 'he', by the way. Oddly, it has never occurred to me that anyone would think otherwise, though there have been some user-name/gender surprises here on AnswerBank!

[Trillipse]

indeed there have

[Rod Mac]

some may say that the word f**k came from Irish law. If a couple were caught committing adultery, they would be punished "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge In the Nude", with "F****N" written on the stocks above them to denote the crime.

Such VULGAR words from Anglo-Saxon English were described so by the incoming Norman supporters/sympathisers and were later deemed to be Taboo.

[Quizmonster]

Rod, anyone who says the f-word came from that - or any other - acronym is an idiot! The earliest-recorded direct written use of the f-word in English was in a poem by the Scottish writer, William Dunbar, in 1503. There were earlier coy 'hints' about the word hidden away in written material. One of those was a satirical poem, written before 1500, that was about the Carmelite friars of Cambridge. A line in code reads, once it's �translated': "They are not in heaven because they 'f' wives of Ely".
No acronym for anything existed until long after these days. Cheers

[smeghead81]

mind your bleedin' own, you two-bob cvnts