A.Word.A.Day --gee-whiz

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Jul 29, 2024

This week’s theme
Minced oaths

This week’s words
gee-whiz
sacre bleu
tarnation
ballyhack
gorblimey

“Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life away.”

The Everly Brothers

Previous week’s theme
Look Ma, no affix!

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

I had been in the US barely a week to attend graduate school. After class I was chatting with a girl. Time flew. We didn’t realize how long it had been. Then she looked at her watch and said “Oh, fudge! I have got so much homework today!” She picked up her backpack and made her way to the lecture hall exit.

When I returned to my apartment that afternoon, I was still thinking about the fudge. I knew about fudge the candy, but that sense didn’t fit here, so I did what I always did when I had a question. I called the library.

“Reference, please,” I said.

When the reference librarian came on the line, I said “Does the word fudge also mean something other than a candy?”
“How do you use it in a sentence?” she asked.
“Oh, fudge! I have got so much homework today!”

There was a pause. Then she said, “I don’t know” and hung up.^* She probably thought I was a prank caller.

Eventually I figured out the euphemism by the context and by the similarity of the sounds and common initial letters.

That was some 30 years ago. Things have changed. The F-word is much more common these days. Maybe you use a minced version, such as “fudge” or maybe you prefer it in its original form^**, or none of the above.

It’s a free world -- you choose how you speak. That said, one should mind the company one is in.

This week we’ll see five minced oaths. Minced oaths are euphemisms: softened forms of words considered offensive in other contexts, such as words related to god, to bodily functions, and to other things considered taboo.

^*Fudging that answer notwithstanding, as far as I’m concerned, you can’t pay the librarians enough for what they do and how much they help.

^**The word “fυck” has been a part of the language for 500 years. The actual practice, far longer. So, no need to be embarrassed of either.

gee-whiz

PRONUNCIATION:

(jee-WIZ/HWIZ)

MEANING:

adjective:	1. Marked by wonder, surprise, enthusiasm, etc.
	2. New; impressive; exciting.
interjection:	Expressing surprise, dismay, enthusiasm, annoyance, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

Euphemism for Jesus, with the second syllable replaced by whiz, a playful exclamation evoking surprise and wonder. Earliest documented use: 1872.

USAGE:

“All that symbology he and Langdon bring to the game is never without its gee-whiz excitement.”
Janet Maslin; Atlas, Buckling a Little; The New York Times; Oct 5, 2017.

“I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime, night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life away.”
The Everly Brothers (Lyrics: Boudleaux Bryant); All I Have to Do Is Dream; Acuff-Rose Publications; Apr 21, 1958.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

human wandering through the zoo / what do your cousins think of you. -Don Marquis, humorist and poet (29 Jul 1878-1937)

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