Minced oath
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Minced oaths are corrupted forms of (usually religion-related) swear words that originally arose in English culture sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation. The censorship caused people to develop a wide variety of minced oaths to avoid swearing on holy names. They were used for swearing and other types of interjections. With time they came to have a mildly comedic effect. Sometimes the comedy was intentional, such as when American comedian W. C. Fields would bypass Hollywood restrictions by exclaiming "Godfrey Daniel!" as a substitute for "God damn it!"
Since they avoid using profanities or holy words, the minced oaths are not equivalent in strength (likelihood to cause offence) as their derivations listed below. However, some of the more modern minced oaths should be avoided in polite speech (e.g. mofo).
- Begorrah = By God
- Bejabbers = By Jesus
- Bleeding heck = Bloody Hell
- Blimey = Blind me (Oh Gosh)
- Blinking heck = Bloody Hell
- Blue Falcon = Buddy Fucker (military slang for betrayal among friends)
- By George = By God
- By golly = By God
- By gosh = By God
- By gum = By God
- By Jove = By God (Jove is another name for Zeus, the most powerful Roman deity)
- Cheese n' Rice = Jesus Christ
- Chrissakes = For Christ's sake
- Cor blimey = God blind me
- Crikey = Christ
- Cripes = Christ
- Dagnammit = Damnation
- Dang = Damn
- Dangnabbit = Damnation
- Dangnation = Damnation
- Darn = Damn
- Darnation = Damnation
- Doggone = God damn or Dog on it
- Drat = God rot it
- Feck = Fuck
- Fink = Fuck
- Flaming heck = Fucking Hell
- Flipping heck = Fucking Hell
- For crying out loud = For Christ's sake; also, a way of hinting at 'fuck' or sanitising it after speaking ("Fuck... rying out loud")
- Freaking = Fucking or Frigging
- Fricken = Fucking or Frigging
- Fudge = Fuck
- Fudging = Fucking
- Gee = Jesus or Jerusalem
- Gee whizz = Jesus
- Gee willikers = Jesus or Jerusalem
- Gorblimey = God blame me
- Good grief = Good God
- Goodness gracious = Good God
- Gosh = God
- Gosh darned = God damned
- Heck = Hell
- Jason Crisp = Jesus Christ
- Jebus = Jesus
- Jeepers Creepers = Jesus Christ
- Jeez = Jesus
- Jesus wept = Jesus Christ
- Jiminy Cricket = Jesus Christ
- Jumping Jehoshaphat = a milder form of Jumping Jesus
- Melon farmer = Motherfucker
- Mofo = Motherfucker
- Mortar forker = Motherfucker
- Muddy funster = Motherfucker
- My goodness = My God
- Sam Hill = Hell (sometimes re-profanitized as "sam hell")
- Shoot = Shit
- Shucks = Shit
- Son of a gun = Son of a bitch
- Strewth = God's Truth
- Suffering succotash = Suffering Saviour (was made famous by Sylvester the cat, a cartoon character who regularly uttered the phrase)
- Sugar = Shit
- Tarnation = Damnation
Minced oaths have a long history. Examples used in the 16th or 17th centuries include:
- Criminy = Christ
- Egad = A God
- Gadzooks = God's hooks (referring to the nails in Jesus on the cross)
- Od or Odd = God
- Odds-bodkins = God's sweet body
- 'Sblood = God's Blood
- 'Sdeath = God's death
- Zounds = God's wounds
Holy Moley actually refers to the Moley flower, believed to have miraculous healing power by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, not to Moses.
Related articles
- Judas Priest (A band whose name derives from a pseudo-blasphemous euphemism for Christ)
- Euphemism
- Profane
- Blasphemy
- List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock (A particularly famous (fictional) user of minced oaths)