Swearwords are an integral part of language, but in some contexts and with certain people it just doesn’t feel right to swear. For these situations, ‘minced oaths’ might be an alternative. Minced oaths are inoffensive versions of a taboo word, like ‘Shoot!’ for ‘Shit!’ or ‘Darn!’ for ‘Damn!’, or even ‘Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!’ for ‘Jesus Christ’.
Nine o’clock
Using minced oaths is one way for film and TV scriptwriters to make their shows available to a wider audience, including children, without causing offence. Broadcasting regulations in the UK state that before 9pm, a time known as the ‘watershed’, no content that could be inappropriate for children can be shown on TV. This means that in Eastenders, for example, a gritty British soap opera set in East London, none of the characters are allowed to swear. Minced oaths like ‘flamin’’ and ‘bloomin’’, delivered with plenty of emphasis, are surprisingly effective in giving the impression of swearing without causing offence.
By jupiter!
Of course, minced oaths are nothing new. In fact, the late 16th and early 17th century saw many new minced oaths enter the English language. This coincided with the rise of Puritanism in England; a religious reform movement that aimed to bring the Church of England back to a strict interpretation of biblical teaching. The Puritans wanted to ban words connected with God from being used in a non-religious context, and in 1606, under the reign of King James I, a censorship law called the Act to Restrain Abuses of Players was introduced by the English Parliament. Under the act, any theatre putting on a play that used the name of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity in a way that was seen as irreligious, would be fined.
These Puritan restrictions had an impact on the plays of Shakespeare, who was writing at that time. For example, Shakespeare often uses ‘Jove’, a form of the Greek god Jupiter, to avoid writing ‘God’, which would have offended the Puritans and got him fined.
Oh... my... God!
The script writers of the hit comedy show Friends would certainly have received heavy fines under the 1606 Act for their frequent use of the expression ‘Oh my God!’, which appears multiple times in almost every episode and is even the catchphrase of Janice, Chandler’s ex-girlfriend. Although, for most people, saying God’s name in this way doesn’t carry the same taboo that it did in the 1600s, it is still seen as wrong by many conservative Christians, especially in the US. To avoid saying the word ‘God’, some people choose the minced oaths ‘gosh’, ‘goodness’, or ‘gracious’ as alternatives, or even the initial letters, OMG.
Polite society
In the musical My Fair Lady, which was made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn in 1964, probably the most famous scene climaxes on a minced oath of ‘bloody’. The word ‘bloody’ is taboo because it refers to the blood of Jesus. In the movie, Hepburn plays Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower seller that has been working with phonetics expert Dr. Higgins to change her accent to an upper-class one. On a trip to the fashionable Ascot races, Eliza convinces everyone with her impeccable accent until the moment during a race when she shouts at a horse in her old Cockney style: “Come on Dover. Move your bloomin’ arse!” Yes, she avoided saying ‘bloody’ by using the minced oath ‘blooming’, but a lady shouting ‘arse’ at Ascot didn’t go down too well!
F*ck and Sh*t
Of course it’s not just religious terms that can be taboo. There are various minced oath forms of ‘shit’, including ‘shucks’, ‘shoot’, and ‘sugar’, while ‘bullshit’ can be replaced with ‘baloney’, ‘balderdash’ or simply ‘BS’. And when it comes to ‘fucking’ there is a whole range of alternative forms from ‘f’ing’ (effing), ‘fecking’, ‘flaming’, ‘flipping’, ‘freaking’, and ‘frickin’’ to ‘frigging’ and probably a whole lot more.
