A Brief History of Excuses
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If you are a loyal visitor to A Good Excuse Blog, then chances are you may have already used an excuse to get out of school. Well, to make up for that missed day, we’re now going to have a history lesson. And to present this lesson, we're introducing a brand new feature to The Good Excuse Blog called... Good Excuse Theatre! And now, without any further ado... The History of Excuses!
From the Latin “excusare” meaning to “release from a charge”. Present day Excuse is a Verb meaning “to clear someone from blame”.
Exculding Bibilical events, the earliest recorded excuse goes back to 50 BC in Rome. A troop of Royal Guards were marching in formation back to the capital. One of them accidentally triped on a rock and knocked the whole troop to the ground. When the general asked the soldier at the back who was responsible for this, he quickly pointed to the soldier in front of him and said “he did it”. Fortunately a scribe who had been charged with recording the agricultural findings along the march was there and he logged the excuse in his book. Hence, “the oldest excuse in the book” was born.
Some other famous excuses in history include:
“God told me to do it” – Joan of Arc
“I have a headache” – Cleopatra…
“I meant to do that” – Leaning Tower of Pisa
“I swear baby, she’s just a friend” – Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, David Letterman, Jesse James, etc.
