APAD: Excuse my French

Meaning:

   Please forgive my swearing.

 

Background:

   A coy phrase used when someone who has used a swear-word attempts to pass it

   off as French. The coyness comes from the fact that both the speaker and

   listener are of course well aware the swear-word is indeed English.

 

   This usage is mid 20th century English in origin. A version of it is found in

   Michael Harrison's All Trees were Green, 1936:

 

     "A bloody sight better (pardon the French!) than most."

 

   The precise phrase comes just a few years later in S.P.E. Tract IV., 1940:

 

     "Excuse my French! (forgive me my strong language)."

 

   Every country has neighbours they like to look down on. For the English it's

   the French.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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It's human nature to feel superior through reviling others. From My Fair Lady:

 

    [HIGGINS]

    An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him

    The moment he talks, he makes some other Englishman despise him

    One common language I'm afraid we'll never get

    Oh, why can't the English learn to

    

    Set a good example to people whose

    English is painful to your ears?

    The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears

    There even are places where English completely disappears

    

    Well, in America, they haven't used it for years

 

Englishmen have no monopoly here; the Chinese have their own prejudices.

Scholars have the tradition of contemning each other. City folks shun peasants,

big-city dwellers look down on small-town visitors, Mandarian speakers deride

dialect spielers, so on and so forth.