I've heard two forms:
Sakes alive!
Land sakes alive!
It means something like, I suppose, "For goodness' sake!" But how odd, really: Sakes alive!
Is that just an intensive form of "For goodness' sake!"--you know, this goodness thing that is begging saking is so vibrant that the required sakes are alive? And how did that "land" come onto the scene?
The more I think about it, the more confused I become.
Any input more than welcome.
Befuddled regards,
WordWhirled
And "heavens to Betsy". Non sequiturs abound.
And Sylvester the cat's version, "Heavens to Mergatroid!"
It’s defined as a rhyming euphemism from the Appalachians on this linguistics page I bookmarked for something else, as it happens (scroll down to section 4), but gives no explanatory info…
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htmAgain, this site doesn’t provide anything very definitive, but is quite interesting!
http://www.uncc.edu/charleston/our writings/stories_text.htm#Lowcountry Colloquialisms and PatoisThen of course there’s our old favourite topic from way back:
Slow down Pa!
Sakes alive!
Ma missed signs
four and five.
Burma Shave.http://www.the-daily-record.com/past_issues/02_feb/000227dr1.htmlIt also seems to have been a much-favoured phrase by Sarah Orne Jewett – is her writing as twee as some extracts make her sound?
"Heavens to Murgatroyd" (sic) was laso (very sic) used by The Pink Panther.
OK, so Shylveshter couldn't schpell(saliva spraying wildly from his mouth as he said this) This was Mel Blanc's voice, was it not?
Snagglepuss always said "Heavens ta Murgatroid!"
I never heard The Pink Panther say anything!
k
Drove me to wonder
Well, good for the friend of your father!
Sakes alive!
Land sakes alive!
It means something like, I suppose, "For goodness' sake!" But how odd, really: Sakes alive!
Is that just an intensive form of "For goodness' sake!"--you know, this goodness thing that is begging saking is so vibrant that the required sakes are alive? And how did that "land" come onto the scene? - ww
Well Wordwind, speaking for a five mile radius of
Lower Peachtree, Alabama...
The phases began as straightforward religious comments,
ex: If Saint Peter were alive today, he wouldn't...
ex: For the sake of the Lord, Maggie, don't...
then became religious exclamations,
ex: Saints Alive!, Ethel, why did you...
ex: Lord Sakes!, Mattie, why did you...
Then the new Baptist preacher in town explained to them that they were swearing...
ex: Land Sakes!
ex: Snakes alive!
Then, just to be safe, the good snake*-handling, foot-washing, Baptist folk excluded all references to God, man, or beasts, or nouns...
ex: " SAKES ALIVE! " They exclaimed.
* Note: "Snakes alive" is concurrent with "Sakes alive" in Lower Peachtree today.
The Pink Panther was a jewel, wasn't it?
Never said anything?
Every time I saw him I heard the singing about the insect poison:
Dead ant dead ant
deadant deadant deadant.
Where does he take his garbage?
To the dump - To the dump - To the dump, dump, dump!
Snagglepuss always said "Heavens ta Murgatroid!"
I don't know about Snagglepuss but I remember the Funky Phantom saying 'Heavens to murgatroyd'.
Sylvester had a lisp so he kept saying 'suffrin' succotash!'
Rubrick, you wrote:
"Sylvester had a lisp so he kept saying 'suffrin' succotash!'
Wouldn't that be 'thuffrin' thuccotath'...with a lithp?
If I get a call from a panter it's usually, "C'mere, lover boy."
And I don't reply I canter, 'cause I CANner!
In reply to:
a friend of my father used to always say
"Well, I'll swan."
Drove me to wonder, how exactly, one "swanned" and how swan came to be a verb.
Well, I must admit I've never heard anyone say "I'll swan" before, but do USn's not talk about people swanning in?
Bingley
Re: Snagglepuss - happy memories there! Wasn't he also famed for saying: "Exit - stage left" when in a tricky situation?
Re: Sylvester - Mel Blanc was a genius - I wonder how many other voice actors could lay claim to such an impressive and diverse body of work!
Re: to swan - I grew up with the phrase "swanning around", meaning fussing around looking like you're busy/doing something when in actual fact you are just time-wasting/doing very little indeed. An alternative in the more colourful Oz [there u are stales - a compromise!] vernacular is "buggering around".
