# When Did People Stop Using Expletives "Gadzooks" and "Zounds"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857 "2012-02-05T13:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/1 "2012-02-05T13:19:22Z")
I gather that these words were used in Elizabethan England-they seem to be quite rare today. Were they used in the 19th Century? I hope they are revived-they do sound cool. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/2 "2012-02-05T13:24:32Z")
Moved CS --\> GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/3 "2012-02-05T14:00:41Z")
We still use interjections, our words (Wow! Gosh! and of course Zoinks! and Bazinga!) will all sound cool in a couple of centuries. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/4 "2012-02-05T14:23:16Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > We still use interjections, our words (Wow! Gosh! and of course Zoinks! and Bazinga!) will all sound cool in a couple of centuries. Cool. ---
**Author:** ![dorsk188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@dorsk188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorsk188)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/5 "2012-02-05T14:48:19Z")
Don’t know why we stopped with these while “Egad” and “by Jove” and other oaths of the time have survived (at least in some rarified contexts), but these two faded out from common use certainly by the mid-20th century, probably earlier. Incidentally, if anyone doesn’t know, “Zounds” is an abbreviation of “His Wounds” (referring to Christ) and “Gadzooks” is “God’s Hooks” (referring to the crucifixion nails). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/6 "2012-02-05T14:53:15Z")
People have stopped using them? 😕:eek: ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/7 "2012-02-05T15:14:41Z")
> [@dorsk188](#): > > Incidentally, if anyone doesn’t know, “Zounds” is an abbreviation of “His Wounds” (referring to Christ) and “Gadzooks” is “God’s Hooks” (referring to the crucifixion nails). ['Sblood! Strewth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minced_oath)! A page where you can view classy oaths alongside “biatch.” Didn’t know about gadzooks. Interesting, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/8 "2012-02-05T15:29:54Z")
I think the OP was asking \*specifically \*about Gadzooks and Zounds. These were already old-fashioned by the 19th century, when you read them being used ironically or in an antique way in novels and plays. I still use “_S’trewth!_” But I am hardly a good example of modern speech patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/9 "2012-02-05T16:15:01Z")
Google’s [ngram viewer](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gadzooks%2C+zounds&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3) is the best tool for this. Zounds had some popularity up until WWII, though it’s mostly 19th century. Gadzooks was hardly ever used. (That bump around 1840 probably is an artifact of how few documents are available for that time.) I tried pushing the boundary back to 1700 but there aren’t enough hits to make it work. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/10 "2012-02-05T17:02:56Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > People have stopped using them? 😕:eek: Egads and Heavens to Murgatroid I hope not! ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/11 "2012-02-05T17:39:19Z")
More generally, is there any evidence of “punctuated equilibrium” or “mass extinctions” in the turnover of popular interjections? Like particular decades that saw an unusually high number of old interjections thrown out and new ones introduced? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/12 "2012-02-05T18:25:09Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > ['Sblood! Strewth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minced_oath)! A page where you can view classy oaths alongside “biatch.”. Nice page, So who else if with me as I just decided to ressurect “by God’s Eyelids” ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/13 "2012-02-05T18:41:29Z")
I had no idea that Gadzooks meant “God’s hooks”. The theology behind that is rather … umm… nasty. 23-skiddoo didn’t last long, did it? However, “cool” (as slang for ‘really good’) seems more lasting to the point that that usage has added an entry to the dictionary definition of the original word. That fixes it in the language more firmly than something that is an archaic form of a religious oath that was apparently deliberately contracted to avoid being blasphemous. The British use of the word ‘bloody’ comes to mind here. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/14 "2012-02-05T19:16:29Z")
The only time I remember hearing “Gadzooks” was in a TV cartoon called “The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town”, in which a giant bear is always saying that and is called that by everyone. He’s a villain until he gets a new set of clothes, and then he allows the Easter Bunny to deliver eggs. (“Oh! So that’s why people get new clothes at Easter!”) Why yes, it was made by the same company that made the “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” cartoon, with stop-motion animation, too. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/15 "2012-02-05T19:31:33Z")
[Gadzooks! It’s All Happening!](http://www.memorabletv.com/global/uk-tv/gadzooks-its-all-happening/) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/16 "2012-02-05T20:03:19Z")
Great Ceaser’s Ghost! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/17 "2012-02-05T20:05:09Z")
Huzzah!! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/18 "2012-02-05T20:13:52Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Great Ceaser’s Ghost! The classic Perry White quote. Updated a bit for Lois and Clark, where Perry’s interjection was “Great shades of Elvis!”. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/19 "2012-02-05T20:45:28Z")
“Gadzooks!!!”, he ejaculated. “Ejaculated” of course, being an early form of “exclaimed”. You may find this [dictionary of archaic words](dictionary of archaic words) interesting. I prefer \*ejaculation \* over _exclamation_, although I have been known to exclaim _following_ an ejaculation. Hope this helps! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/20 "2012-02-05T20:55:28Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Huzzah!! Saying this, loudly and often, was one of the best parts of being a Civil War reenactor. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857.md?page=2)