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French leave, sometimes a French exit, an Irish goodbye or an Irish exit, is a departure from a location or event without informing others or without seeking approval. Examples include relatively innocuous acts such as leaving a party without bidding farewell in order to avoid disturbing or upsetting the host, or more problematic acts such as a soldier leaving his post without authorization.
The first attestation of the phrase in the ''
French leave, sometimes a French exit, an Irish goodbye or an Irish exit, is a departure from a location or event without informing others or without seeking approval. Examples include relatively innocuous acts such as leaving a party without bidding farewell in order to avoid disturbing or upsetting the host, or more problematic acts such as a soldier leaving his post without authorization.
The first attestation of the phrase in the ''Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' is from 1751, a time when the English and French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
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."James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...
's journal for November 15, 1762, mentions his friend not seeing him off on his leaving Scotland "... as Cairnie told me that people never took leave in France, I made the thing sit pretty easy."
In Canada and the United States, the expression ''Irish goodbye'' is also used.
Military usage
The term is sometimes used to mean the act of leisurely absence from a military unit.For the usage, see for example the war memoirs of Commandant Ludwig Krause 1899–1900, Cape Town 1996, p. 65.References
{{lacking ISBN, date=February 2017 Culture of England Culture of France France–United Kingdom relations Leave of absence Military life