French leave
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From French (adjective) + leave (noun), 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] Compare Spanish irse a la francesa and Portuguese sair à francesa (“go in the French manner”) but also the otherwise ubiquitous attribution of this behaviour to the English as with French filer à l’anglaise (“leave in the English manner”), Italian filarsela all'inglese, Polish wyjść po angielsku, etc.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fɹɛnt͡ʃ ˈliːv/
- (General American) IPA(key): /fɹɛnt͡ʃ ˈliv/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -iːv
Noun
[edit]French leave (uncountable) (idiomatic, informal, dated)
- A departure taken quietly and unnoticed, without asking for permission or informing anyone. [from mid 18th c.]
- Synonyms: French exit; (figurative) AWOL, disappearing act, Irish goodbye
- 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; […]
- (specifically, chiefly military, euphemistic) Desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission; absence without leave, AWOL.
- 2010, William Marvel, The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln’s War, page 10:
- he may have felt a particular need to mitigate the responsibility of those who shirked their duty, for as he wrote that letter he had just returned from French leave himself.
Derived terms
[edit]- take French leave, take a French leave (obsolete)
Translations
[edit]departure taken quietly and unnoticed
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desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission — see AWOL
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ “French leave, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “French leave, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
[edit]- French leave on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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