Gadzooks

Meanderer

Supreme Member
Gadzooks The truth behind not-so-innocent phrases
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I went to a film with a person from India once who I didn't know very well. It started with a segment about the Aswan Dam in Egypt. I was so impressed with the picture on the screen, I blurted out, "Holy Cow!", then put my hand over my mouth and turned red. Not quite the same thing.

But he thought it was funny, thank goodness (<---there ya go :)). Gadzooks would have been better.
 

I started reading James Mitchner's "Caribbean" last week (very interesting, but heavy going as most of his books are). One of the chapters dealt with how strongly forbidden the use of profanity (especially taking the Lord's name in vain) was in the rather puritanical English settlements on the islands. Phrases such as "Ye God", "by God's Blood" and "God's Wounds" were punished by having a "B" branded on your cheek. Those phrases were replaced, respectively, by "egad", "s'blood" and "zounds".

I had a teacher in grade school who did not allow the use of "gosh, golly or jeez" because she said they were substitutions for "God" and "Jesus". We didn't get to use "swell" or "lousy", either. I'm not sure what those were supposed to stand for......
 
"Bloody is a commonly used expletive attributive (intensifier) in British English. It was used as an intensive since at least the 1670s. Considered "respectable" until about 1750, it was heavily tabooed during c. 1750–1920, considered equivalent to heavily obscene or profane speech. Public use continued to be seen as controversial until the 1960s, but since the later 20th century, the word has become a comparatively mild expletive or intensifier".

"After the mid 18th century until quite recently bloody used as a swear word was regarded as unprintable, probably from the mistaken belief that it implied a blasphemous reference to the blood of Christ, or that the word was an alteration of 'by Our Lady'; hence a widespread caution in using the term even in phrases, ..."
 


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