Yikes is over

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/18/yikes-is-over.html

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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.

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Only if you include ‘oo eck’ and ‘crumbs’. And possibly a ‘hush, Penfold’.

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Strike a light!

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Wowzers (say many of my online friends).

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“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.

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Zounds!

Also 'struth! and crikey!

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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…)

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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!

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Gadzooks!

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‘Struth was also Sherlock Holmes’ expletive of choice. It puzzled me no end back in sixth grade.

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Yikes!!!

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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.

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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”.)

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Whoever didn’t have a crush on Velma in 1978 were horrible people.

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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.

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So “Yikes! Let’s unpack this…” becomes “Blimey! What’s all this, then?”

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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.

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