Several years ago, three children stood around discussing how their parents reacted when they did something wrong. The first child said, “When I get in trouble, my dad said he’ll knock my teeth out.” The second child piped up, “My mother just cusses me.” The third one said, very seriously, “My dad cusses me, too, but he uses Christian cuss words.”

Definition

Finding other ways to express surprise or annoyance without using profane, taboo, or blasphemous words is what led to the creation of minced oaths. These oaths are weak but acceptable ways to swear or curse. (And might be called “Christian cuss words.”)

A minced oath is usually shorter, misspelled, or a mispronounced form of the actual swear words or curses. The euphemism created by these altered words or phrases gets the point across without the original version’s objectionable characteristics.

Did You Know…

• The English language isn’t the only language to have minced oaths.
• Almost all profanities in the English language have a minced oath replacement.
• Minced oaths should share some of the same sounds as the oath they’re replacing.
• Certain sounds convey displeasure or passion more than others, so the sound of the replacement words in the minced oath is very important.
• Rhymes and alliterations are two ways of creating minced oaths, though over time some rhymes have been eliminated.

History

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest use of the term “minced oath” in the English language goes back to 1654, but English minced oaths themselves had already been around for at least one hundred years.

The English Puritans’ disapproval of swearing led to the use of minced oaths in plays. Some of the ones used were ’sblood (“By God’s blood,” invented by Shakespeare), zounds (God’s wounds), ’sfoot (“By God’s foot”), and gadzooks (“By God’s hooks).

In 1606, the English Parliament passed a censorship law called The Act to Restrain Abuses of Players. It officially banned profanity spoken on stage. This was followed in 1623 by a general ban on all swearing. When it didn’t effectively suppress the “sin” of swearing, The Profane Swearing Act 1694 was passed. (It was eventually repealed in 1746.)

The most common expletives had a biblical reference until the late 1800s. During the Victorian era (1837-1901), a strict moral code made minced oaths increasingly popular. People replaced profanity, especially blasphemous profanity, with euphemisms to express their surprise, annoyance, and/or frustrations.

Did You Know…

• Taking God’s name in vain was considered a serious offense in many cultures.
• Between 1598-1602, seven new English minced oaths were recorded.
• Not until 1757 did “Gosh” replace “God.”
• “Heck” for “Hell” became popular at the end of the 1800s.
• A U.S. federal judge threatened a lawyer with contempt of court in 1941 because he used the minced oath “darn.”
• In the early 1970s, columnist James J. Kilpatrick received complaints for using “zounds” in an article.
• In the South, “Southernisms” like “hell’s bells” neutralizes profanity.

Blank and Bleep

Rather than print profanities, dashes were used to replace them. Back in 1854, Cuthbert Bede replaced the dashes with the word “blank” when he wrote, “I wouldn’t give a blank for such a blank blank. I’m blank, if he doesn’t look as if he’d swallowed a blank codfish.”

Because of Bede, the practice of using the word “blank” to represent curses or oaths began. “Blank” morphed into “blanked” and “blankety” by the 1880s. In the 1900s, as new technology emerged, a beeping sound replaced profanity (or content not suitable for family or daytime broadcasting) on TV and radio programs. This “bleep” censor became known as “bleeping.”

Did You Know…

• The British had a long-running TV quiz show called “Blankety Blank.”

Final Words

We learned the language we speak from our parents and grandparents. They passed along these minced oaths like family heirlooms; some having been learned at their parents and grandparents’ knees.

So most of us don’t think twice about why we say the things we say. But when you dig into the origins of these oaths, an interesting and complex background emerges. Religious prohibitions, culture, language, and society’s expectations all merged to shape these words.

Today, many minced oaths are no longer used, while the original meanings of others have been completely forgotten. I’ve attached a list of various minced oaths for you to review. (Click here to get it). How many of them do you recognize or have used?