unearths some literary gems.
The Oath Referential, or, Sentimental Swearing
SPOTTED IN THE WILD; EVIDENCE (OR PRESUMPTION) OF SOME GENERAL BYGONE CURRENCY
My only aunt!
Oh, asterisk!
Oh, blank!
My hat!
Good egg! [? not easily searchable, but unlikely to be unique]
God's trousers!
Great jumping beans!Ye little fishes!Jumping Jeroboam
Pooh-bah!
Snakes and ladders!
SPOTTED IN THE WILD; PROBABLY UNIQUE COINAGE BY ONE AUTHOR
Well, I go to Chicago! (Robert Graves)
Damask cheek! (G. D. H. & Margaret Cole) [? presumed unique but not easily searchable]
I'll be double-dyed in Danbury! (Ellery Queen)
Filberts! (Ellery Queen) [unique? not easily searchable]Great Jonathan! (Vincent Starrett)Jesus H. Moses! (Rex Stout)Moulting Manitous! (Douglas G. Browne)My Great-aunt Maggie! (Alan Melville)What the Lord Chancellor? (F. Frankfort Moore)Sac à papier! [unique? not easily searchable]
Hoots toots! (Gladys Mitchell)
Good old gaiters! (Gladys Mitchell)
Well, by the Great Catamaran! (Carolyn Wells)
Phooey with an olive! (Norbert Davis)
Rouge pots and hare's feet! (New York Times, 1903)
Oh, fiddlehead ferns! (Kimberly Greene Angle)
Toasted cheese! (Hope Mirlees)
Busty Bridget! (Hope Mirlees)
By my Great-Aunt’s Rump! (Hope Mirlees)
NON-OATH REPURPOSED INTO AN OATH BY JC-E
Well, of all the arts!
Muppets on ice!
Jumping dingbats!
Marvin Gardens!
F'rinstance! (modeled on the French "par exemple!")
Double davenports!
Whizzle McFluff!
Oh, Bucky balls!
Peaky Blinders!
Well, I seldom! (even milder version of "Well, I never!")
Muffins and crumpets!
O vanitas! O fiddlitas!
UNCATEGORIZED
O the Times! O the Manners!
Darn my socks!
Mother Machree!
Great goats of spunk!
NOTED BY PROF. ODDFELLOW
Old balsam! (The 'Jorrocks' Edition, 1892)
Judas' cats! (Western Ontario's 1930 yearbook)
Oh pickles!
Howly jabers! (Judge's Library, 1887)
Good luck! (Scribner's, 1876)
Oh, migrations!
What the hey, what the nonny?
Winnie-the-Pooh performed twice! ([Conestoga] Spoke newspaper)
