Well attestedFrom the people of the place
French leave
noun · first attested 18th century
The French say the same thing about the English: filer à l'anglaise.
A departure made without announcement, permission, or goodbye.
Record
- Relationship
- From the people of the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 18th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
France
- In English
French leave
Eighteenth-century English writers used it for the supposedly French habit of leaving a party without taking leave of the host, and the army later applied it to absence without leave. French returned the compliment with an identical phrase pointing the other way across the Channel.
Also pinned to France
8 more from the same place
French hornThe orchestra's horn is French only in English.FranceFrench windowA whole family of English words for fittings points at France.FranceFrench polishA French finish made from a resin secreted by an insect farmed in India.FranceFrench ticklerEnglish pins anything sexual on France; French does the same to England.Francetake French leaveThe French return the insult precisely: they call it leaving English style.FrancefranciumIts discoverer first wanted to call it catium, and was told it would sound like cat in English.FranceFrench breadFor most of its life in English the phrase had nothing to do with the baguette.FranceFrench doorAmericans call it a door and the British call the same thing a window.France
France
All 57 entries 48 more words from France
denimThe cloth is named for Nîmes, not for jeans.NîmesbayonetThe blade is traditionally tied to a port in the Basque country.BayonnechampagneThe drink is a place-name first, a party word second.ChampagnecognacThe brandy is the town’s name in a glass.CognaccayenneThe heat is named for a capital on the Atlantic coast of South America.CayennelimousineThe luxury car is named for a cloak from Limousin.LimogesroquefortThe blue cheese is a village in the Aveyron.Roquefort-sur-SoulzoncamembertThe cheese is a Norman village.Camembert