Les goddams

{{Short description|Obsolete French ethnic slur for the English}} {{italic title}} {{dictdef|date=June 2016}} [[File:Schlacht von Azincourt.jpg|thumb|English soldiers (right) at the Battle of Agincourt]]

'''''Les goddams''''' (sometimes '''''les goddems'''''<ref>Hughes, Geoffrey. (1998). ''Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English''. Penguin. p. 1. {{ISBN|978-0140267075}}</ref> or '''''les goddons'''''<ref>Calder, Nigel (1986). ''The English Channel''. Chatto & Windus. p. 185. {{ISBN|978-0701130534}}</ref>) is an obsolete ethnic slur historically used by the French to refer to the English, based on their frequent profanities.<ref>Hitchings, Henry (2011). ''The Language Wars: A History of Proper English''. Hachette UK. p. 20. {{ISBN|978-0374183295}}</ref> The name originated during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453) between England and France, when English soldiers were notorious among the French for their frequent use of profanity and in particular the interjection "God damn".<ref>Richards, Jeffrey. ''Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to Dad's Army''. Manchester University Press. p. 13-14. {{ISBN|978-0719047435}}</ref><ref>Hughes, Geoffrey (2006). ''An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World''. M.E. Sharpe. p. 324. {{ISBN|978-0765612311}}</ref><ref>Caunce, Stephen. (2004). ''Relocating Britishness''. Manchester University Press. p. 89. {{ISBN|978-0719070266}}</ref> Outside France, the term has been used in French Canada.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.vehiculepress.com/tr_brierley.html |title = Long-dead Authors Make Amiable Companions: Translating Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé |access-date = 2007-05-26 |author-link = Jane Brierley |last = Brierley |first = Jane |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070630081812/http://www.vehiculepress.com/tr_brierley.html |archive-date = 2007-06-30 }}</ref> Related terms have existed outside the French-speaking world: ''Godames'' was historically used in Brazil, while ''Gotama'' was used in East Africa.<ref>{{cite book |last= Burton |first= Richard F. |author-link= Richard Francis Burton |title= The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments |orig-year= 1885 |access-date= 2007-05-26 |edition= volume 2, part 23 |year= 2006 |publisher= eBooks@Adelaide |location= Adelaide |chapter= Tale of Taj al-Muluk and the Princess Dunya (The Lover and the Loved) |chapter-url= http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97b/part23.html#fn1203 |archive-date= 2008-09-11 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080911035751/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97b/part23.html#fn1203 |url-status= dead }} Charles Johnston records the use of this word specifically for a soldier. (''Travels in Southern Abyssinia through the Country of Adal to the Kingdom of Shoa'' (London, 1844), vol. 1 p. 182 and note.)</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Wiktionary|goddam}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddams, Les}} Category:Pejorative terms for European people Category:French slang Category:French profanity Category:Hundred Years' War Category:Exonyms Category:Anti-English sentiment in Europe