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Frenchman

.

Done like a Frenchman, turn and turn again (1 Henry VI., iii. 4). The French are usually satirised by mediæval English authors as a fickle, wavering nation. Dr. Johnson says he once read a treatise the object of which was to show that a weathercock is a satire on the word Gallus (a Gaul or cock).

Frenchman. The nickname of a Frenchman is “Crapaud” (q.v.), “Johnny” or “Jean,” “Mossoo,” “Robert Macaire” (q.v.); but of a Parisian “Grenouille” (Frog). (See Brissotins.)

They stand erect, they dance wheneʹer they walk;

Monkeys in action, parroquets in talk.”


Gay: Epistle III.

French Canadian, “Jean Baptiste.”

French Peasantry, “Jacques Bonhomme.”

French Reformers, “Brissotins” (q.v.).

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Freemasons
Freeport (Sir Andrew)
Freestone
Freethinker
Freezing-point
Freischütz (pronounce fry-shoots)
Freki and Geri
French Cream
French Leave
French of Stratford atte Bowe
Frenchman
Fresco-painting
Freshman
Freston
Frey
Freyja
Friar
Friar
Friar Bungay
Friar Dominic
Friar Gerund