Minor Ejaculations

[Amor de Cosmos]

Not that sort... Stop giggling at the back!

Verbals that were common when I was a UK kid but now seemed to have vanished.

Cor! Coo! Cripes! Crikey! Crumbs! Blimey! Lumme! Gosh! Golly! and my Dad's favourite, "Strewth!"

Not intended to be a complete list by any means, just "ouch" words that were accepted on a daily basis in our house. Thing is no present day equivalents appear to exist, or am I wrong? I don't routinely hang out in households that include ten-year-olds so can't be sure, nor do I live in the UK. Do kids move directly to "grown-up swear words" these days, or is there a lexicon of milder epithets I'm just not aware of?

[Mumpo]

Minor Ejaculations

My days.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Minor Ejaculations

As in other languages these are often close soundalikes (or at least startalikes) to swearwords or blasphemy.

So the Scottish cartoon oath: 'Jings! Crivvens! Help ma boab!' overlaps with 'Crikey!' in being a bodyswerve around Jesus/Christ.

Blimey came from 'May God blind me'.

My Mum's fave when bashing her thumb or so on was 'sh....ugar' (instead of 'shite')

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Minor Ejaculations

My mother used expressions like that, while my father usually went for the full-fat version. I grew up in the 80s.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Minor Ejaculations

I usually go with 'bums!' for minor annoyances. Or 'pissflaps', but that doesn't seem quite so innocent.

[treibeis]

Minor Ejaculations

I’m familiar with many of the words in AdC’s list only through reading comics and Billy Bunter books; to this day, I’ve never heard anybody say ‘Lumme’ or ‘Cripes’.

I haven’t read, or even seen, a kid’s comic for about 30-odd years, but they still exist, don’t they?

[beak]

Minor Ejaculations

In the Hovis advert that was my youth you'd hear some crackers from the older folks: "hell's teeth!" "blood and sand!"

[Jah Womble]

Minor Ejaculations

Corks, readers!

[Amor de Cosmos]

Minor Ejaculations

My Mum used "Hells teeth!" when she was really pissed off. It vied for popularity with "Oh my stars and garters!"

I think even I'm too old for "Corks!" Lumme was common though, usually preceded with "Cor!" "Cripes" was already verging on parody. I think I used it because it was common in Jennings books.

I’m familiar with many of the words in AdC’s list only through reading comics and Billy Bunter books;

Good point. It's hard to whether they reflected or influenced childhood slang. Probably both.

[ursus arctos]

Minor Ejaculations

I'm seriously chuffed to have evidence that real people actually used "Strewth!"

Cripes actually made it over here.

[3 Colours Red]

Minor Ejaculations

Surely only Penfold ever actually said "crumbs"?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Minor Ejaculations

No, I used Crumbs. Mainly at my grandparent's. My gran was a bit sensitive to bad language, and it was one explicative I knew wouldn't give her the vapours. She never really forgave me for claiming "turd" in Scrabble when I was about eight.

[hobbes]

Minor Ejaculations

Shithammers! is my swear of choice.

[beak]

Minor Ejaculations

"oh sh.... ugar"
"oh sh.... ine a light"

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Minor Ejaculations

hobbes wrote: Shithammers! is my swear of choice.

...which defeats the purpose of euphemisms...

[Gangster Octopus]

Minor Ejaculations

hobbes wrote: Shithammers! is my swear of choice.

We know. You only just told us...

[hobbes]

Minor Ejaculations

Can I help it if I'm a bit forgetful in my dotage?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Minor Ejaculations

ursus arctos wrote: I'm seriously chuffed to have evidence that real people actually used "Strewth!"

Contraction of 'God's Truth', isn't it? Probably quite popular in the 19th century.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Minor Ejaculations

Strewth was a big one In Battle comic.

[WOM]

Minor Ejaculations

When I'm trying not to say "What the fuck?" in front of the kids I say "Jiminy Cricket", which I nicked off of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H.

[Crusoe]

Minor Ejaculations

I end up saying 'good lord!', which immediately annoys me as I'm not especially religious. I feel like I'm mildly blaspheming someone I'm not sure I believe in.

[Nefertiti2]

Minor Ejaculations

"Jesus Wept!" was my mother's epithet of choice.

[Levin]

Minor Ejaculations

It's a little 18th century I know but I really like zounds, which some googling puts in the same family as

blimey
gadzooks
strewth
drat

[Furtho]

Minor Ejaculations

I work with a guy who uses "crumbs" still, in 2015. While I think of it another colleague occasionally uses "bother" to express irritation.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Minor Ejaculations

I'd forgotten about drat. Definitely in heavy usage when I was ten.

La Signora still uses "Coo" and "Gosh." It's really quite sweet, but most Canadians are totally nonplussed.