On my way in to work this morning, I was listening to a Jeeves and Wooster audiobook, and one of my sleepy synapses fired as I heard Bertie saying things like “dash it all”, “that dashed hat,” and so on. It occurred to me that in more genteel times, writers would replace swear words with dashes, like “the d—ed woman”, or “go to h—”.
I got to wondering if “dash” as an oath of its own arose as a reference to this practice, sort of like how today we might say, “I’m so bleeping tired” or whatnot. Anyone know?
Hmm. Surprised you’ve managed to avoid it; it’s a pretty common usage AFAICT, though I admit I’ve seen it in print a lot more often than I’ve actually heard it.
I’ve always assumed that “swear,” “oath” and “curse,” used in reference to profanity, came from the days when blasphemy was a much bigger concern than vulgarity. Wasn’t it once a much bigger no-no to say “by God” than it was to say “fuck?”
Come to think of it, I’ve definitely heard/read “muttered oaths”, but I always assumed that meant God – like thetruewheel said – or actual oaths against an enemy (“I’ll get you, I will!”), not just generalized fuckshitdamncraps. Well 0@7#, learn something new every hour.
I recall learning that in the early 17th century in America the adults of the Puritan communities were quite outraged at the teens use of a contraction of God. It was actually a contraction of the term God Bless You that we still use today. The term is goodbye.
Or, maybe it’s like “I swear, that guy down the street is a mincer!”