Les Jones: Word of the Day

November 09, 2006

Word of the Day > Word of the Day - Minced Oath

A minced oath is an expression based on a profanity which has been altered to reduce or remove the disagreeable or objectionable characteristics of the original expression; for example, "gosh" used instead of "God", "darn" instead of "damn" and "heck" instead of "hell". The profanities upon which minced oaths are based are usually religious in nature. The use of minced oaths originally began in the United Kingdom sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation.

Based on this list of minced oaths, they aren't kidding about most of them being religious.

By George --> By God
By golly --> By God's body
By gosh --> By God
By gum --> By God
By Jove --> By God
For crying out loud --> For Christ's sake
For Pete's sake --> For St. Peter's sake
For the love of Mike --> For St. Michael's sake
Jiminy Cricket --> Jesus Christ
Judas Priest --> Jesus Christ
Jumping Jehoshaphat --> Jumping Jesus
Odds-bodkins --> God's sweet body
Sacré bleu --> Sang de Dieu (God's blood)
Suffering succotash --> Suffering Saviour
Zounds --> God's wounds

When I watched Warner Brothers cartoons I had no idea "Suffering succotash" and "Jumping Jehoshaphat" had any religious connotations.

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Comments

And of course Heck is where you get darned to if you don't believe in G-sh.

Posted by: triticale at November 09, 2006

A synonym for minced oath would be "minor oath" which I think is older.

I've noticed the use of a false cognate oath over the last few years, which is people using "Jury Rig" to mean something cobbled together as a stop gap. The phrase Jury Rig itself means to stack a jury in one's favor. It's a slang term in it's own right, not one referring to a slapdash solution.

Based I suppose on the similar wording, people are using it nowadays to replace the cobbled "J*w rig" which is anti-semitic. Other variants I've seen over the years include "Jerry Rig" (presumably a reference to provincial German technical solutions) and a rhyming version using the N word which is anathema for reasons apparent to any polite person. I don't know which of these variations is the longest in use. Heck it's probably one that nobody uses any more like Phoenician Rig or something ;-)

I bet you could write a book about all the Nerf Curses people have created in the last 20 years.

Posted by: Chris Range at November 13, 2006