Minced Oath facts
While investigating facts about Minced Oath, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Words that are similar to (either in sound or meaning) but are not quite profanities (ie. frickin') are called “minced oaths.”
A minced oath - ex: "gosh," "darn" or "heck" - is a euphemistic expression formed by misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo term to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 6 of the best facts about Minced Oath I managed to collect.
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The exclamation "gadzooks" is a "minced oath" meaning a replacement for "by God's hooks" (reference to the nails on Christ's cross)
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Minced oaths were ways of cursing without being explicit, with phrases like "dagnabbit", "tarnation", and "Jiminy Cricket".
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The phrase Great Scott! Used in the Back to The Future series is considered a minced oath - euphemism used to avoid swearing. The Oxford Dictionary identifies it as an "arbitrary euphemism for Great God!
