J is for Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket is of course a diminutive externalized voice of conscience in the movie Pinocchio (another treasure I have never seen).  But before he was that, "Jiminy Cricket" was what is known as a "minced oath" -- a way of swearing that does not actually cross the line into vulgarity, but simply suggests the forbidden term in the hearer's mind.  Jiminy Cricket (having a J and a C) is an old-fashioned way of saying "Jesus Christ!"  Back when people still cared about taking that name in vain, of course.

Other common minced oaths:
-"darn" for "damn"
-"gosh" for "God"
-"heck" for "hell"
-"frigging" for "fucking", or "fudge" for "fuck".

These are all, like Jiminy Cricket, formed using alliteration -- the minced oath begins with the same letter as the actual oath.

Another way to form a minced oath is through the use of metrical similarity or rhyme -- "Judas Priest" for "Jesus Christ".  A popular one in my undergrad crowd was "Cheese on toast!" for "Jesus Christ".

Or, you can form minced oaths by using just the initials of the words in general, a method which has become increasingly popular with the rise of texting amongst the young and impressionable.  "WTF" and "OMG" are probably the most ubiquitous current examples, and you see these used freely now in all kinds of situations where use of the full phrase would give people pause.  "Effing" is a good example of an oath that got minced to an initial, then lengthened out to an entire word again!  Another minced oath along those lines is "bloody" -- which in itself is often considered too inappropriate for use, so is further minced to "blooming" or "ruddy", but is actually already an ancient minced oath for "By our Lady" in reference to the Virgin Mother.  Some people just can't be prudish enough.

There are other ways to form minced oaths.  One of my personal favourites is Cockney Rhyming Slang, which deserves an entire blog post to itself, frankly.  Cockney Rhyming Slang is complicated but tons of fun.  The idea is you replace a word with a phrase of two or three words that end in a rhyme for the original word, then get rid of the word that rhymes.  So for example, in Australia, "china" is a common slang term for a friend.  The origin is "mate", rhymes with "china plate" -- drop the plate -- you get "china".  You may not realize, thus, that the term "berk" -- a mild British pejorative term -- is actually Cockney Rhyming Slang from "Berkely Hunt", chosen to rhyme with..."cunt".

Jiminy Cricket, it's been a long time since I've blogged!