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Oh my gosh

Posted by ESC on January 31, 2005

In Reply to: Oh my gosh posted by josh davis` on January 31, 2005

: does anybody here happen to know what the origins of this phrase came from? it would seem that it is a twist of "oh my god" but I cant find any pertinant information about it
: thanks

It's a "Minced oath." "Many of the milder oaths listed below follow the old Hebraic and Middle English tradition of avoiding the use of sacred words, such as God, by substituting words with the same initial letter. Thus for God the oaths substitute George, ginger, Godfrey, golly, gosh, gracious, gravy, grief, etc." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).

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