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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
excuse my Latin
- which resonates with byb's response - I, also, had always taken the same take (if you see what I mean!)
And nice to see you back again, rav!
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Interesting that most people say "excuse my French" after using "Anglo-Saxon" words. A hold over from when vulger language and swear words came from the Anglo-saxon lower class not the Normon/FRench upper class.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Oh, I doubt the expression is that old. You probably only need to go back to the Napoleonic Wars (or any other time - or any time - when the English have decided to hold the French up as an example of all that is execrable ...)
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
But most of the curse-words are that old.
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 180
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OP
member
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 180 |
But most of the curse-words are that old.
But are most curse-words really of Anglo-Saxon origin? I'm only asking because I'm too lazy to look all of them up in my book of Etymology.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122
member
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122 |
You probably only need to go back to the Napoleonic Wars (or any other time - or any time - when the English have decided to hold the French up as an example of all that is execrable ...)Then how you'll explain that expression with 'Latin'? I may also add that we call it "kitchen Latin" or "backyard Latin" - these are strict translations from Polish, but I also saw such English expression: "dog Latin". Well, it can't be SO old 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
Hi Giftie, and all,
I'm currently skimming through The English: A Protrait of a People, by Jeremy Paxman, and discovered some of the many negative terms associated with 'French' (leave, kisses, drive [in cricket], and so on), but, beautifully, some French retaliation as well. Most delicious is les Anglais ont débarqué for menstruation. Which, with all that I've been smoking, gives rise to a
[fantasia]
Of French origin, but affecting a neatly Puritan outlook, young Paul Revere is in an agony of anxiety, fearful that his dreadful secret will come out and he will be ostracised, or worse, by his community.
Then, his mistress tells him the good news, and already driven half-crazy by fear, he snaps, and announces his delight to the world, running through the streets of Lexington and Concord, ringing out the wild bells and screaming his ecstasy - except he does it in his adopted language, English, translating it literally and unwittingly kick-starting the United States of America.
[/fantasia]
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 180
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OP
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 180 |
Either you have the most creative mind on earth, or I need to start smoking what you're smoking. Perhaps bother are true. Well done at any rate. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok--now I get it. Funny! les Anglais ont débarqué = The British have landed.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
Just to top and tail it - I presume the phrase arose because of the British Redcoats....
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