Minced oath

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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". Nearly all profanities have minced variants; the words that are most taboo give rise to the most.[1]

Although minced oaths are not as strong or offensive as the words from which they are derived, they are generally to be avoided in formal speech.[citation needed]

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[edit] Formation

The most common methods of forming a minced oath are rhyme and alliteration. Thus the word bloody can become blooming, bleeding, or ruddy.[1] In Cockney rhyming slang, rhyming euphemisms are sometimes truncated so that the rhyme is eliminated: Hampton wick for prick became simply Hampton. (The phrase flashing his Hampton, in turn, led to the use of the word flasher for an exhibitionist.)[2]

Minced oaths can also be formed by shortening: b for bloody, eff for fuck.[1] Sometimes words borrowed from other languages become minced oaths; for example, poppycock comes from a crude Low Dutch excretory term, pappa kak.[2] The use of French foutre for fuck dates to 1592; later forms include foot (1600s) and footer (1753).[3]

Sometimes is it unclear exactly what oath is being replaced by a euphemism. The practice of replacing profanities with dashes in print gave rise to the use of blank as a minced oath. This usage goes back at least to 1854, when Cuthbert Bede 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." By the 1880s, this euphemism had given rise to the derived forms blanked and blankety.[4] In the same way, bleep as a minced oath arose from the masking of offensive words on radio.[5] Adjectival probably first became current around 1910, though in 1851 Dickens wrote:

Bark's parts of speech are of an awful sort -- principally adjectives. I won't, says Bark, have no adjective police and adjective strangers in my adjective premises! I won't, by adjective and substantive!... Give me, says Bark, my adjective trousers![6]

[edit] History

The use of minced oaths in English dates back at least to the 14th century, when "gog" and "kokk", both euphemisms for God, are recorded. Other early minced oaths include "Gis" or "Jis" for Jesus (1528) and "by Jove" for "by God" (1570).[3]

Puritan opposition to swearing may have caused the profusion of minced religious oaths in late Elizabethan drama. Seven new minced oaths are first recorded between 1598 and 1602, including 'sblood for God's blood from Shakespeare, 'slight for God's light from Ben Jonson, and 'snails for God's nails from the historian John Hayward. Swearing on stage was officially banned by the Act to Restraine Abuses of Players in 1606, and a general ban on swearing followed in 1623. In some cases the original meanings of these minced oaths were forgotten; 'struth (God's truth) came to be spelled 'strewth and zounds changed pronunciation so that it no longer sounded like God's wounds.[7]

[edit] Minced oaths as humor

Minced oaths tend to take on a humourously quaint tone as time goes by. As the more direct forms become more accepted in common parlance, the disguised versions lose their purpose, signifying an old-fashioned innocence on the part of the speaker.[citation needed]

Sometimes they are used intentionally for comedy, such as when U.S. comedian W. C. Fields would bypass Hollywood restrictions by exclaiming "Godfrey Daniel!" as a substitute for "God damn it!"[citation needed]

[edit] Minced oaths in fiction

Main article: List of fictional expletives

Writers have occasionally invented their own alternatives for today's swear words. In science fiction, this illustrates the evolution of language over time, and also allows the characters to naturally avoid using television-censored words.[citation needed]

In the comic strip Dilbert, Heck is a place, reserved for those whose sins are too minor for Hell; its ruler is Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light.[8]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Hughes, 12.
  2. ^ a b Hughes, 16-17.
  3. ^ a b Hughes, 13-15.
  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, entry for blank, definition 12b.
  5. ^ Hughes, 19.
  6. ^ Dickens (1999), 150.
  7. ^ Hughes, 103-105.
  8. ^ Dilbert.com - The Characters. United Feature Syndicate. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.

[edit] References

  • Hughes, Geoffrey (1991). Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-16593-2.
  • Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (CD-ROM) (1994).

[edit] See also

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