PAS DEVANT

"Pas devant les domestiques"

In the 18th and 19th centuries, when one of the Family of the House started to discuss something unsuitable for the ears of the servants, the hasty warning uttered out was: "Pas devant ...". Servants were expected not to understand French whereas the well-to-do middle classes favoured the language as a token of their superior education. Bourgeois, indeed.

And so, many an embarrasing but interesting 'point de conversation' was kept 'entre nous'. Pity.

My grandmother, born and bred in the polders of South-Holland and nothing much 'gentilfemme' about her, worked as a lockkeeper. However, even she still used the phrase when I was a young child. She pronounced the first two words as if they were one. And I doubt whether she knew the rest of the French expression or its meaning. She always said "paddevan" when something was discussed that was not meant for children's ears. She had no servants, anyway. Only much later I learnt about this expression and I understood what my granny had actually been saying.

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