Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/18/yikes-is-over.html
…
6 Likes
Blimey! …I used to idly wonder what the origin of the term was, until I read Neil Gaiman’s “World’s End” (the Sandman Series). One of the characters in it exclaims “Blind me!”. It was an “aha” moment.
7 Likes
14 Likes
Only if you include ‘oo eck’ and ‘crumbs’. And possibly a ‘hush, Penfold’.
13 Likes
Strike a light!
3 Likes
Wowzers (say many of my online friends).
16 Likes
“Gordon Bennett” is an often used term of exasperation too, not sure of the exact origin but i did find this brief summary… A powerful newspaper magnate constantly in the news, Bennett was the Rupert Murdoch of his day. So when we take his name in vain, it may be as a kind of swear word, or as a substitute for saying ‘Jesus Christ’ or '‘God Almighty’. The precise meaning may be lost in the mists of time.
5 Likes
Zounds!
Also 'struth! and crikey!
20 Likes
There’s also “Stone the Crows!” which I sometimes vary with “Strobe the Crones!” …(“Clone the Strobes?” …“Troll the Scones”… sorry, I think I’m in a fugue state now…)
7 Likes
For a long time I wondered what the heck the occasional surprised or dying character on Monty python was saying when they said “‘struth!”. Thanks to google I was able to figure out it’s a contraction of “god’s truth!”. Interesting!
8 Likes
Gadzooks!
10 Likes
‘Struth was also Sherlock Holmes’ expletive of choice. It puzzled me no end back in sixth grade.
5 Likes
Yikes!!!
9 Likes
That would more usually be written “strewth!”, although it’s ultimately the same word. These days, it seems to be an almost exclusively, indeed stereotypically, Australian expletive.
10 Likes
My Auntie Evelyn, bless her, now long gone, used to say “Lorny Blazes!” which if she said it slowly enough, you could understand it to be “Lord, an He Bless us!” (“An”, meaning “if”, not “and”.)
9 Likes
Whoever didn’t have a crush on Velma in 1978 were horrible people.
11 Likes
I’ve always been partial to “GREAT CAESAR’S GHOST” since my friends and I ran across it in a grammar textbook in middle school.
God, how we annoyed everyone over the course of that week.
9 Likes
So “Yikes! Let’s unpack this…” becomes “Blimey! What’s all this, then?”
7 Likes
i’m definitely pro-YIKES. you can’t substitute “blimey” – as fine of a word as it is – because the meaning is different. “yikes” has a note of fear, and “blimey” is more… surprised wonder, or something.
12 Likes
