Chrysti The Wordsmith: Gadzooks - 2

Greetings This is Christie the wordsmith and a clever ploy to avoid fines for public blasphemy. Shakespeare and his contemporaries invented curious new euphemisms for any oath containing the name of God. For example the interjection gods hooks a blasphemous reference to the hooks or nails used in Christ's crucifixion became the more veiled reference. Gad zouk God's wounds referring to those which Christ sustained during his suffering was turned into the euphemized zwei ounds or Zounds. And there were more oaths. Some of which may seem to us utterly absurd. Consider Shakespeare's blood spelled apostrophe S B L O O D. This apostrophe signifies the exigent of the name God so Sblood was the euphemism of God's blood considered a scandalous epithet in the 16th century. Oaths of similar construction which implied as swearing by some portion of divine anatomy were slid or gods I led.

Sfoot God's foot and body or God's body Gad was also a common substitution for the Holy Name seen in our word Gad Zouk. It also appeared in by Gad. Gads bod lichens or God's little body. Gads precious. Gads lids and gads wounds another minced reference to Christ's suffering. From Montana State University in Bozeman. This is Christy the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry Web dot com.