The Ear to the Ground Series: Part Eight -- Dear Me !

We continue with the Ear to the Ground Series for the first time in 2008, our English quotations series, which some enjoy.

Dear Me! This exclamation of surprise or mild dismay is perhaps no more than an euphenism for DAMN ME - a phrase that in more prudish times was considered profane. How times have changed.

Many other common explanations originated as euphenisms in this way. COR BLIMEY! Is a milder cockneyfied form of the traditional oath MAY GOD BLIND ME! The expletives GEE WHIZ!, JEEPERS CREEPERS!, CRUMBS!, and CRIKEY! are all distortions of disrespectful oaths using the name Jesus Christ. and DASH IT ALL! is a toning down of DAMN IT ALL! - possibly deriving from the prissy practice in past times of replacing the word DAMN, when written or printed, with a hyphen or a dash: WHY SIR, CONFOUND YOUR - INSOLENCE! you might read in an 18th century novel.

Or, perhaps, OH, - it all! I'VE LOST MY HORSE! Anybody reading those sentences out loud and anxious to preserve propriety in the home, might render them as WHY SIR, CONFOUND YOUR DASHED INSOLENCE! and DASH IT ALL! I'VE LOST MY HORSE,sounding out the name of the punctuation mark.

The adjective BLANKETY- BLANK developed in much the same way in the 19th century. Suppose this last sentence had read I'VE LOST MY - HORSE.This might, when read out loud before the family, emerge as I'VE LOST MY BLANKETY-BLANK HORSE.

THERE IS, HOWEVER,A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF DEAR ME! The phrase may be a layman's awkward attempt at beginning the prayer DIO MI SALVI - God Save Me!

I must admit this weeks offering was somewhat complicated, but thats the english language at times, quite complicated.

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