 | ||
French leave is "leave of absence without permission or without announcing one's departure", including leaving a party without bidding farewell to the host. The intent behind this behaviour is to leave without disturbing or upsetting the host.
Contents
The phrase is first recorded in 1771 and was born at a time when the English and French cultures were heavily interlinked.
In French, the equivalent phrase is filer à l'anglaise ("to leave English style") and seems to date from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
First usage
The Oxford English Dictionary records: "the custom (in the 18th century prevalent in France and sometimes imitated in England) of going away from a reception, etc. without taking leave of the host or hostess. Hence, jocularly, to take French leave is to go away, or do anything, without permission or notice." OED states the first recorded usage as: 1771 SMOLLETT Humph. Cl. (1895) 238 "He stole away an Irishman's bride, and took a French leave of me and his master".
The actual derivation may have its roots in American history during the French and Indian Wars. About 140 French soldiers were captured near Lake George in upstate New York and ferried to an island in the lake. The French, knowing the area better than the British, waited almost until dawn and then quietly waded ashore leaving their former captors bewildered upon arising. Though its role as such lasted less than a day, the island has been named Prison Island.
Military usage
The term is especially used to mean the act of leisurely absence from a military unit.This comes from the rich history of Franco-English conflict; as Spain has a similar saying concerning the French (despedida a la francesa), it may have come from the Napoleonic campaign in the Iberian Peninsula which pitted the French against an Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish alliance.