# What interjections/insults have dropped out of fashion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002 "2009-08-19T22:49:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/61 "2009-08-20T23:35:15Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > My dad was quite fond of “Caesar’s ghost!” or “Great Caesar’s ghost!” I don’t hear that much anymore. That came from Perry White, Clark Kent’s boss on the fifties TV show _Superman_. Your dad notwithstanding, I’ve never heard anyone say it in real life. Which leads me to the next poster: > [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > “Up your nose with a rubber hose!” (What the hell did that mean anyway?) I believe that was cooked up by the writers of _Welcome Back, Kotter_ for the Sweathogs (mainly Vinnie Barbarino/John Travolta) to say. It was a family-friendly version of “Stick it up your ass.” ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/62 "2009-08-20T23:53:49Z")
Since Shakespeare’s already been brought up, how about some (non-racist) invective from Gone With the Wind? Cad Flighty, fast bit of baggage Ninny Mealy-mouthed Scoundrel Piddling, do-less good-for-nothing Old peahen Thing, as in “vile thing” and “low-down, cowardly, nasty, stinking thing” (For that matter, “low-down” isn’t heard much anymore) There’s also a moment when Scarlett’s too furious with Rhett to come up with something truly vile, so she shouts: “You aren’t a gentleman!” “Heel” was popular through the 1940s, at least, mostly for the kind of men previously called cads. In my junior high school, “Your mother wears army boots” was often followed by “…and your father wears a bra!” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/63 "2009-08-20T23:54:58Z")
Fishwife! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/64 "2009-08-21T00:12:39Z")
“Jumpin’ Jehosaphat!” Is that from a TV or movie character also? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/65 "2009-08-21T00:19:48Z")
Yeah, I think so. I seem to remember Gabby Hayes saying it and maybe Walter Brennan in the _The Real McCoys_, but I’m less sure about Brennan than I am about Hayes. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/66 "2009-08-21T00:27:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve been coming to the Pacific Northwest since 2001, and moved here in 2003. ‘Right on’ is a popular phrase up here. ISTM that in the '70s it was pronounced ‘Right oawnnnn!’ Up here it’s just ‘Right on’ with the emphasis on the ‘Right’. Ronnie Eckstine taught me that the correct pronunciation (ca. 1971) was “rat own”. Barry White must have taken lessons from Ronnie, too. Rat own, rat own… ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/67 "2009-08-21T01:17:01Z")
Apparently, calling a woman a “cat” used to be very insulting. I guess it still lives on in the adjective “catty” and the somewhat less common “cat house”, but I gather people used to refer to a woman as a “cat” when they wanted to be really mean. I have an old collection of jokes (from about 1949 or so) that has one with an elaborate build up to a bitchy woman at a restaurant ordering a glass of milk. One of her companions asks her, “wouldn’t you rather have that in a saucer?” Damn! ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/68 "2009-08-21T01:51:39Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Disappointingly, I really don’t hear “good grief” anymore. I must be older than I thought because I say that quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/69 "2009-08-21T08:31:48Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > “Up your nose with a rubber hose!” (What the hell did that mean anyway?) > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I believe that was cooked up by the writers of _Welcome Back, Kotter_ for the Sweathogs (mainly Vinnie Barbarino/John Travolta) to say. It was a family-friendly version of “Stick it up your ass.” Years an’ years an’ years ago I came across a book that was an anthology of stand-up routines from comics who were highly popular in the early '70s.\* Gabe Kaplan had a routine in there; it was a Bill Cosby-like sketch featuring kids he knew growing up who clearly served as inspiration for the Sweathogs. The line “Up your hole with a Melorol” was used at least once in that sketch. (I still have no firm idea of what a Melorol actually is, although it appears to be some sort of ice cream.) \*The book was already well out-of-date by the time I read it, as _Kotter_ wasn’t even in reruns on WLVI any more. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/70 "2009-08-21T11:10:44Z")
Cad, bounder, blackguard, scoundrel, knave, scallywag, rascal, swine, dog, dastard. Most of these are still banned in the House of Commons, I think 😛 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/71 "2009-08-21T12:22:07Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > : > > Originally Posted by freckafree View Post > > My dad was quite fond of “Caesar’s ghost!” or “Great Caesar’s ghost!” I don’t hear that much anymore. > > That came from Perry White, Clark Kent’s boss on the fifties TV show Superman. Your dad notwithstanding, I’ve never heard anyone say it in real life. They didn’t invent it for Superman – it was at one time an actual mild interjection. Mark Twain has Horace Bixby, the pilot who taught him, use it in **Life on the Mississippi**. Given what he says elsewhere about Bixby’s language, though, I suspect that Twain was using euphemisms instead of repeating Bixby’s actual words. Nevertheless, Twain’s use of it shows that, at least by the 1870s (when he recorded this) the interjection existed. Nobody says **Ecastor!** and **Edepol!** anymore. They were mild “women’s oaths” used in the time of the Caesars. I first learned of them in Colleen McCulloch’s books, but I’ve since come across them in my research. They’re likely appeals to Castor and Pollux. Appealks to them as the Gemini probably resulted in our mild oath **Juminy** (which I haven’t heard anybody actually use) and its “extended” form **Jiminy Cricket(s)** (which I haven’t heard either, outside the movies). I’ve long suspected the popularity of Jiminy Cricket as an epithet is due to his initials being “JC”. Disney, of course, used the name for the character in Pinocchio. It’s worth noting that, in Collodi’s original a.) he’s just called “Cricket” and b.) Pinocchio jumps on him and squishes him. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/72 "2009-08-21T14:30:26Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > Bugs Bunny said a lot of them. Maroon and nincompoop are the first ones to come to mind, except he called the charging bull a nin-cow-poop. He also used “You are a mental case” in a Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde sketch. In the TV series _Lois and Clark_, they updated Perry White. Instead of “Great Ceasar’s Ghost”, he would say, “Great Shades of Elvis!” ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/73 "2009-08-21T15:16:50Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Just today I was thinking of **ratfink**. **'a Boo-Boo.** ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/74 "2009-08-22T10:23:50Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I was going to mention that. There’s a (Gahan Wilson?) cartoon of a hideous alien wearing an overcoat and a human mask. He’s saying to a tough guy, ‘Yes. I WOULD like a knuckle sandwich!’ I think that was The Far Side. I still use “say what?”. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/75 "2009-08-22T18:36:36Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > Bugs Bunny said a lot of them. Maroon and nincompoop are the first ones to come to mind, except he called the charging bull a nin-cow-poop. I’ve gotta wonder if “nincompoop” is a bastardization of “_non compis mentis_”. > [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > I use “Damn and blast” all the time at my job. I’ve never heard “damn and blast”, but I’ve heard, occasionally use, “blast and tarnation”. > [@ryobserver](#): > > “Heel” was popular through the 1940s, at least, mostly for the kind of men previously called cads." Amusing (to me, anyway) anecdote: When I was attending school (one of those vocational “business schools”) in '86 or '87, the seating in one of the classrooms was a bunch of long tables with three chairs at each. Before one class I was sitting at one of these tables, in the chair closest to the aisle; the other two chairs were vacant. One of the young ladies in my class approached my table intending to sit in one of the vacant chairs, but my own chair was too far back for her too squeeze through. So she said, “Aren’t you going to be a gentleman?” and I replied, “No, I’m going to be a _cad_!” (jokingly, of course - after pausing for comic effect I scooted my chair in to let her by). Now, I only had the most general notion of what “cad” meant, so when she asked me what it meant I decided to whip out my dictionary and look up the precise meaning. Which was, “An ungentlemanly character.” So it turned out I had used the word exactly correctly without even realizing it 😛 > [@Olentzero](#): > > Years an’ years an’ years ago I came across a book that was an anthology of stand-up routines from comics who were highly popular in the early '70s.\* Gabe Kaplan had a routine in there; it was a Bill Cosby-like sketch featuring kids he knew growing up who clearly served as inspiration for the Sweathogs. The line “Up your hole with a Melorol” was used at least once in that sketch. (I still have no firm idea of what a Melorol actually is, although it appears to be some sort of ice cream.) It sounds like even the book may have been censored. I heard the audio of that actual routine years ago on the radio, and what I heard was “Up your [bleep] with a Melorol”. Then again, the obvious meaning of “hole” in your cite may have been considered bleep-worthy by the radio station. (And admittedly, “ass” doesn’t rhyme with “Melorol”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002.md?page=3)