take French leave

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English[edit]

WOTD – 20 June 2024

Etymology[edit]

From take + French leave, apparently from a French custom, already recorded in the 18th century, of leaving from receptions or other events without formally announcing one’s departure to the host or hostess.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

take French leave (third-person singular simple present takes French leave, present participle taking French leave, simple past took French leave, past participle taken French leave) (idiomatic, intransitive, informal, dated)

  1. To leave quietly and unnoticed, without asking for permission or informing anyone; to slip out. [from mid 18th c.]
    Synonyms: duck out, sneak out
    • 1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Mrs. Mary Jones, at Brambleton-hall”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 226:
      As for Ditton, after all his courting, and his compliment, he ſtole avvay an Iriſhman's bride, and took a French leave of me and his maſter; […]
    • 1797 July 20 (date delivered), Thomas Paine [i.e., Robert Treat Paine], The Ruling Passion: An Occasional Poem. […], Boston, Mass.: […] Manning & Loring, for the author, published 1797, →OCLC, page 10:
      Thus through the vveary vvatch of ſleepleſs night, / This learned ploughman plods in piteous plight; / Till the dim taper takes French leave to doze, / And the fat folio tumbles on his toes.
    • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 279:
      What, Master Peveril, is this your foreign breeding? or have you learned in France to take French leave of your friends?
    • 1824, Edward Allen Talbot, “Letter XXXV”, in Five Years’ Residence in the Canadas: Including a Tour through Part of the United States of America, in the Year 1823. […], volume II, London: […] [James Nichols] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, →OCLC, page 244:
      [N]o sooner do European servants arrive in America, than, perceiving such an outcry about equality and independence, and learning the facilities which are afforded of otherwise procuring the means of existence, they immediately become ashamed of the fancied meanness of their station, take French leave of their employers, and, procuring land for themselves, commence the occupation of farming on their own account.
    • 1931, Marcel Proust, “An Afternoon Party at the House of the Princesse de Guermantes”, in Stephen Hudson [pseudonym; Sydney Schiff], transl., Remembrance of Things Past: Volume XII: Time Regained, uniform edition, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1941 (1960 printing), →OCLC, page 352:
      As, taking French leave, she passed me, I bowed and she, taking my hand, fixed her round violet orbs upon me as if to say: "How long since we met, do let us talk of it next time."
  2. (specifically, chiefly military, euphemistic) To desert or be temporarily absent from duty or service without permission; to go absent without leave or AWOL.
    • 1829, [William Nugent Glascock], “The Return”, in Sailors and Saints; or, Matrimonial Manœuvres. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 222–223:
      That officer […] reminded Burton of the necessity there was that all the officers of the Spitfire should hold themselves in readiness, as a court-martial was sure to be ordered relative to the loss of that ship: that order might possibly be telegraphed down, and he must therefore decline granting any leave, except for a few hours. Here was a disappointment with a vengeance. The first suggestion of the moment was one altogether unworthy of him, which was to incur the imputation of adopting Gallican habits, and taking what is known by the term "French leave."
    • 1908, Elroy McKendree Avery, “Wolfe and Saunders before Quebec”, in A History of the United States and Its People from Their Earliest Records to the Present Time, volume IV, Cleveland, Ohio: The Burrows Brothers Company, →OCLC, page 269:
      In spite of threats and punishment, many Canadians [in the French army] deserted in order to care for their families and to provide food for the coming winter; more than two thousand are said thus to have taken French leave.

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “French leave, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “French leave, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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