Here's a further inconsistency in the sources, found while researching my post that started the thread "French#1 (cooking)".

Among the definition of 'french' as a verb, OED includes 7. trans. and intr. To practice fellatio or cunnilingus (with). slang. AHD includes this as definition 3.b. -- but in 3.a. it includes more, which OED lacks. It says, 3.a. Slang To give a French kiss to. b. Vulgar Slang To perform oral sex on.

OED does not recognize the "kissing" meaning that AHD notes as 3.a. Morever, I must admit that the meaning OED does note (AHD's 3.b) was completely unknown to me, though it's clearly supported by OED's quotations. I'd only known of the "kissing" meaning.

Comments?

It appears to be a continuation of the habit of blaming someone else for your own problems. As I remember, we discussed the tendency of English speakers to call syphillis "The French disease." And the French blamed it on the Italians, and so on...

There was a running joke for years about how prostitutes apparently left coded advertising cards in phone boxes, saying "French lessons". As a naive young gel who only knew about the kissing meaning, I never understood why it provoked such a 'nudge nudge, wink wink' response. At some point someone enlightened me as to the other meaning, but I don't think it's all that common over here now. Even when discussing kissing, we tend to leave the 'kiss' part in.