Why is a condom called a french letter whats the reason?
The condom in fact derives from the Roman Empire and was indeed made of sheep gut, but it was not much used (the legion was laid low with herpes when the Goths invaded). The French aristocracy used them widely, however, as early as the 17th century. Madame de Sevigne, writing in 1671, dismissed the use of condoms as “armour against enjoyment and a spider’s web against danger”. Seventy years later, the Venetian adventurer Casanova became its most ardent supporter. In Britain the condom was viewed as a dirty Continental fetish, something for harlots or sailors. They remained curious about them, however, and young men taking the Grand Tour (through Europe via France, Italy and Greece to Constantinople and beyond) would, if sending a message home with a returning tourist, enclose a condom… thus a French letter. The culture and culinary clash of the English / French on the Grand Tour also gave rise to the terms “Rostbifs” (English) and “Frogs” (French). The French practice of calling them
