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I'm not sure why I'm wondering this. I've heard this ejaculation, but never used it until just a few moments ago. Where does it come from?
k
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bill Bruford and AC/DC, dude!
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Bill Bruford and AC/DC, dude! Excellent. Thanks for that, muso. I've never thought about where "Hell's Bells" actually came from, though I used to hear it often enough (especially from people who wanted to do some major swearing but were restricted by context). Maybe it's a slightly disguised version of "Bloody Hell", which is at root more overtly sacrilegious? Bells are associated with churches and goodness - even in Notre Dame  - so there's a bit of softening here. The quick rhyme, so beloved of childish slang, also helps soften the impact. One of my schoolteachers used to come out with Hell's Teeth in his (fairly frequent) moments of anguish. I seem to have adopted that a little, which is scary. The phrase has an excellent hiss and bite in the middle. Try it next time you fancy expleting.  "Strewth" is similarly snappy. Fisk
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old hand
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Hey Fish - I'm partial to "strewth" as well but unfortunately, in moments of stress, I revert to the gutter. Sigh....
Someone I once knew used to say, "What the heckinheimer?" I made the mistake of telling my sister-in-law this. Now SHE says it! but tongue-in-cheek (t'other individual was serious!).
For truly splendiferous expletives, try The Rock (as we fondly call Newfoundland). They swear in complete paragraphs there, and never use the same phrase or allusion twice in a set. A quote from Ray Guy (may he rest in peace) 's This Dear And Fine Country - a man cussing his pickup, which has broken down:
"Now then, you lord lifting hopped-up reeving dying merciful blood of a flaming sawed-off mortalizing son of an ever-lasting terrified jumping cross-eyed slimy slot-faced jack-a-bon. Go now, will you."
(the next part of the remedy was to "put the boots to her" - and then, lo and behold, she started again!)
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stranger
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I just love Bill Bruford. King Crimson is my favorite band, a have all discs of KC. They are really cool.
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No better place to put this, and I don't feel so bad resurrecting a topic that's only been down for a month... anyone else heard of the bluegrass band Hayseed Dixie? They're a riot. Not a big fan of AC/DC, I skipped over their first album and went straight for #2, which has a killer cover of "Centerfold" by the J Geils Band. Amazing how well it all translates into the bluegrass mileu. http://www.hayseed-dixie.comRead their genesis page, about the origin of the band. *Priceless.* Shades of Deliverance.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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Hell's bells! Went looking and ended up in a Buffy the Vampire site!
It was a favorite of my Grandfather's and dates back to the early 1900 at least.
(Hells Bells, not Buffy. Don't start - just behave.)
That's all I have to offer.
Any website on old expletives Dr Bill?
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Bells are associated with churches and goodness... so there's a bit of softening hereHave been talking about the derivation of "bloody" on and off for a while, and my personal conclusion is that it's primarily a shortening (and disguise of) "by our Lord" - not "by our Lady", which is a common theory. Think about the (English) abbreviation of "my Lord" as "m'Lud", and you'll see what I'm getting at. Oh, and there's probably a tie-in with the Shakespearian "'Sblood" = God's blood, and plenty of other associations with blood and bloodiness thrown in. What makes this worth mentioning here is that the juxtaposition of "bloody" and "hell" is intensifying rather than softening (which I suggested was the case for "Hell's Bells"). OK, there's a very visible violence in a nasty place as a surface interpretation, but I wonder if the deep-down meaning is very sacrilegious, i.e. "By the lord (of) hell" ? Food for thought for Brits and Australasians who, like myself, use the oath fairly regularly.. 
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old hand
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Fish, your "'sblood" reminded me of "zounds" - which is actually pronounced "zooonds," because it is the short form of "God's wounds" - apparently. If me Grade 13 English teacher is to be believed. Grade 13 = something like O levels, j'pense? - anyway, somewhere you go in school when you are 17 or 18! - or, now that it's been abolished in my ol' province of Ontario, somewhere you used to go....
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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