Judas priest (curse)

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"Judas Priest!" is an interjection used as a mild curse word, as in: "Judas Priest, I could write poetry myself if I had a whole year for it."[1]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary entry "Judas", the expression is first attested in 1914 (see also Barnhart Dictionary of American Slang). It probably originated as a euphemistic substitution for the less acceptable "Jesus Christ!" Like "Jesus", "Judas" begins with a "J" and has two syllables. "Priest" has one syllable and ends in "-st" as does "Christ".[1]

Judas Priest is also the name of a heavy metal band, formed in Birmingham, England in 1970.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Sinclair Lewis. Babbitt. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922.