Old blasphemies (not for the faint-hearted)

Posted by Kiwi49 on September 30, 2002

Hi folks -- I'm brand new here. Mr Google sent me, because I wanted to check out a story from my high school days . Our English teacher (who was English) once told us that the working classes in Britain used to blaspheme frequently, so the upper crust brought in a law banning the practice. However, the ever-inventive citizens circumvented this by simply shortening their expressions. Contrary to another post here (www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 5 messages 695.html), cripes doesn't mean just Christ, it means Christ's piss.
Likewise:
Gosh = God's ****
Crikey = Christ kick me
I'll leave "crikey dick" to your imagination.

Can anyone confirm this? Most dictionaries give a much more PC definition.

• Old blasphemies (not for the faint-hearted) Kiwi49 09/30/02