Citations:parlez vous

English citations of parlez vous

					1817 1861 1885	1901 1916 1917 1980 1989 1992 1996	2006
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1817, Christopher Kelly, A Full and Circumstantial Account of the Memorable Battle of Waterloo: the Second Restoration of Louis XVIII; and the Deportation of Napoleon Buonaparte to the Island of St. Helena, T. Kelly, page 289

  They could fight, but they could not parlez vous;

  But the fields were green, and the sky was blue

• 1861, Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society, volume XXI, New York State Agricultural Society, page 340

  our wives and our daughters deemed it more creditable to spin and weave, to sew and knit, than to “parlez vous francais,” or to thumb the piano.

• 1885, W. Harlan Cord, A Knight Templar Abroad, J. Burns Publishing Co., page 8

  Tom Hood’s Wholesome Advice to all Tourists who do not Parlez vous Francais

• 1901, Dr. Walter Lindley et al. (editors), Southern California Practitioner, Stoll & Thayer, page 193

  There are lots of them, thousands of them, who can ‘parlez vous Francais,’ and who also have it in their power to hammer on the piano.

• 1916, Annual Convention of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, page 53

  They could not parlez-vous French with the Frenchmen, neither could the Frenchmen talk English with them, and they certainly were homesick.

• 1917, Will Hart, “When Yankee Doodle Learns To Parlez Vous Francais”, A.J. Stasny Music Co.
• 1980, Billy Joel, “Don’t Ask Me Why”, Columbia Records

  Now your ghosts have gone away […] Now you, “parlez vous francais”

• 1989, Dario Fo et al., Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman, Samuel French (publisher), →ISBN, page 39

  Mama Zaza: It's useless to parlez-vous francais. Understand I do it quite well, magnificent lady mine.

• 1992 Martin Gilbert, Churchill, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 31

  You have very much to be thankful for, if only you consider, & fancy how nice it will be to be able to parlez vous francais.

• 1996, Michla Pomerance, The United States and the World Court as a "Supreme Court of the Nations", Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, page 128

  I do not ‘parlez-vous Francais!’ I am not linguist enough to pronounce the names of some of these foreigners

• 2006, Patrick Agte, Michael Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger commanders of the Leibstandarte in World War II, Stackpole Books, →ISBN

  We climbed out and had a chat as well as we could ‘parlez vous français.’

English citations of parlez vousing

					1808 1837 1843 1857 1864 1871 1891	1917
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1808, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme et al., Sketches of Character: or, Specimens of Real Life, volume II, Mills & Co. St. Augustine’s-Back, page 131

  “Lawks!” cried Miss Grimshaw, “d’ye hear’em parlez vousing?”

• 1837, James Fenimore Cooper, Gleanings in Europe, Carey, Lea & Blanchard, volume II, page 17

  Well, here have I been parlez-vousing to you in a way to surprise you, no doubt; but these Frenchmen have got my tongue so set to their lingo

• 1843, Horace Smith, Adam Brown, the Merchant, H. Colburn, page 204

  “Come, come,” cried Brown peevishly, “don’t stand there parlez-vousing, but bustle about and have a good fire in the yellow room, and get her to bed as fast as you can […] .”

• 1857, Catherine Grace F. Gore , Preferment: or, My Uncle the Earl, page 186

  “How glad am I those cursed parlez-vousing fellows are going away to-morrow,” whispered Lord Holwell to Julius

• 1864, Henry Mayhew, German Life and Manners as Seen in Saxony at the Present Day, W.H. Allen & Co.

  all as a grown man like myself can say, after he has been a year or so in the country, is ‘guten Tar’ […] and ‘calf’s flesh’—for that’s about the extent of my parlez-vousing.

• 1871, Hamilton Aïdé, In That State of Life, B. Tauchnitz, page 139

  all this parlez-vousing, and writing of her mistress’s letters, inspired Ms. Rouse with a mortal hatred and mistrust of the girl

• 1891, Fances Ann Kemble, Further Records, 1848-1883, A Series of Letters, H. Holt and Company, page 295

  so indignant was she at the interlopement (that’s the reverse of elopement, isn’t it?) of the parlez-vousing biped in our preserves

• 1917, Lawrence Byrne, The American Ambassador, Scribner, page 49

  No parlez-vousing around me. I speak only American and it’s good enough for anybody.

English citations of parlez voused

					1877	1908
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1877, Alexander Hay Japp, Thoreau: His Life and Aims, J. R. Osgood, page 87

  While my companions smoked a pipe and parlez-voused with one party, I parlezed and gesticulated with another.

• 1908, Ascott Robert Hope Moncrieff, Isle of Wight, A. and C. Black, page 68

  then, by the way he and his valet parlez-voused to each other before my face, I soon got the suspicion they were not master and servant.