1740. Poor Robin. Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack'd groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him the French pox.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick; i.e., he lost his nose by the pox.
Frenchified, adj. (old).—Clapped;
more generally and
accurately poxed.
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s. v.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Frenchified, infected with the venereal disease; the mort is frenchified = the wench is infected.
French Leave, To take French
leave. verb. phr. (colloquial).—(1)
To decamp without notice;
(2) to do anything without permission;
(3) to purloin or steal;
(4) to run away (as from an
enemy). [Derivation obscure;
French, probably traceable to
the contempt engendered during
the wars with France; the compliment
is returned in similar expressions
(see Synonyms) + leave
= departure or permission to
depart. Sense 1 is probably the
origin of senses 2, 3, and 4. See
Notes and Queries, 1 S. i, 246;
3 S. vi, 17; 5 S. xii, 87; 6 S. v,
347, 496; viii, 514; ix, 133, 213,
279; 7 S. iii, 5, 109, 518.]
English Synonyms.—To retire up (one's fundament); to slope; to smouge; to do a sneak; to take the Frenchman; to vamoose.
French Synonyms.—S'escarpiner (popular: = to flash one's pumps; escarpin = a dancing shoe; jouer de l'escarpin = to ply one's pumps, (16th century); s'échapper, s'esquiver, filer, disparaître, s'éclipser, se dérober, se retirer, and s'en aller à l'anglaise (= to take English leave); pisser à l'anglaise (= to do an English piss, i.e., affect a visit to the urinal); prendre sa permission sous son coude (popular: literally to take one's leave under one's arm); ficher or foutre le camp.
German Synonyms.—Französischen Abschied nehmen (= to take French leave: from Gutzkow, R. 4, 88, etc, born 1811); französischer Abschied (Iffland, 1759-1814, 5, 3, 117); auf gut französisch sich empfehlen (Blumauer, 2, 72, 1758-1798: also Gutzkow, R., 4, 88); hinter der Thur urlaub (= to take leave behind [or outside] the door, i.e., after one has got outside it: quoted by Sanders, from Fischart, 1550-1589); hinter der Thüre Abschied nehmen (= to say good-bye outside, to take French leave); also, er beurlaubte sich in aller Stille, explained as er stahl sich, schlich sich davon, and translated 'he took French leave'; also, sich aus einer Gesellschaft stehlen.—Hilpert's Dict., 1845.
Spanish Synonym.—Despedirse á la francesa (= to take French leave).
1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker, p. 54. He stole away an Irishman's bride, and took a French leave of me and hi master.
1805. Newspaper (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5, S. xii., 2 Aug., 79, p. 87, col. 2). On Thursday last Monsieur J. F. Desgranche, one of the French prisoners of war on parole at Chesterfield, took French leave of that place, in defiance of his parole engagement.
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. lviii. 'I thought I would avoid
