# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/21 "2012-02-05T20:57:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Saying this, loudly and often, was one of the best parts of being a Civil War reenactor. As well as working at a Renaissance Faire. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/22 "2012-02-06T00:40:11Z")
My mother said “Gadzooks” and probably still does. I’ll have to ask her. She also said “Heavens to Murgatroyd” and “Heavens to Betsy” and “What in the Sam Hill…?” Language was fun around our house. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anyone actually say “Zounds,” though I’ve read it in comic strips. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/23 "2012-02-06T01:21:52Z")
Odd’s blood! ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/24 "2012-02-06T01:24:36Z")
“ **Balllllzac!!!** ” Hermione Gingold in The Music Man. I forgot the character’s name. I don’t think it was a commonly used expression, however. Maybe just in that film. One of my favorite musicals, btw! 😉 Q PS: “Zounds” sounds like it may have also been used in a commercial. Not the Mounds candybar, though. 3 Musketeers, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/25 "2012-02-06T03:15:49Z")
**Khaaaan!** ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/26 "2012-02-06T03:51:48Z")
In the 50’s, I think they survived in comic books. As a child, never remember a real life example. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/27 "2012-02-06T03:56:14Z")
I think they were all put in mothballs when the Batman TV series ended. Along with Biff, Boffo, and Zonk! ---
**Author:** ![Pitter\_Patter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90db22/32.png) [@Pitter\_Patter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitter_Patter)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/28 "2012-02-06T04:39:20Z")
I think around the time “Scooby Doo” went off the air led to their quick disappearance in the mainstream lexicon. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/29 "2012-02-06T04:39:53Z")
Action Man: The old fake coffin trick. Gadzooks, you think I would have remembered that one from “The Case of the Old Fake Coffin”. ---
**Author:** ![dorsk188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@dorsk188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorsk188)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/30 "2012-02-06T07:08:58Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > ['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. Thank you for properly introducing me to “Ods Bodikins”. I’d heard it before, but now that I know its meaning, it will certainly make an appearance this family Christmas dinner. ---
**Author:** ![DHMO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@DHMO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DHMO)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/31 "2012-02-06T08:49:51Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > “ **Balllllzac!!!** ” > > Hermione Gingold in The Music Man. I forgot the character’s name. > > I don’t think it was a commonly used expression, however. Maybe just in that film. > > One of my favorite musicals, btw! > > 😉 > > Q > > PS: “Zounds” sounds like it may have also been used in a commercial. Not the Mounds candybar, though. 3 Musketeers, maybe. It wasn’t so much an exclamation, as it was the ultimate pejorative of a list of authors of “dirty books” (Chaucer! Rabelais! _ **Ballllzac** _!) which [Marian Paroo](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0019884/) (Shirley Jones) the librarian was recommending to the youngsters in town. The character was the wife of the Mayor of River City (Paul Ford), [Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0019892/). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/32 "2012-02-06T08:57:06Z")
Crikey Dickens! Whillikers! Well, I’ll go to the foot of my stairs! By The Power of Greyskull! Well, I’ll be hornswoggled! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/33 "2012-02-06T12:03:07Z")
“By Gradthar’s hammer…” Oh, wait. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/34 "2012-02-06T16:08:04Z")
I was walking through the local college recently and got to wondering what young girls say these days in place of the 1960s’ most frequently uttered “minced oath,” which I have no idea how to spell convincingly (and, I think, why it’s so seldom seen in print). It was the word “God,” drawn out to about three or four syllables, with the final “d” missing. Anyone else know about that one? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/35 "2012-02-06T16:34:18Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > I was walking through the local college recently and got to wondering what young girls say these days in place of the 1960s’ most frequently uttered “minced oath,” which I have no idea how to spell convincingly (and, I think, why it’s so seldom seen in print). It was the word “God,” drawn out to about three or four syllables, with the final “d” missing. Anyone else know about that one? I remember that from the 1970’s in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/36 "2012-02-06T17:59:24Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Egads and Heavens to Murgatroid I hope not! There is a quote by Wile E. Coyote when one of his schemes went awry. “Zounds, gadzooks, egad, and other expressions of profound dismay” ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/37 "2012-02-06T18:07:22Z")
My favorite is “Sweet Evil Jesus!”. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/38 "2012-02-06T18:18:46Z")
“Gah!” was a minced oath? I thought it was just exasperation, with the G replacing the glottal stop over time. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/39 "2012-02-07T03:31:39Z")
When I was in fifth grade or so, the expletive for elementary school age was “guy darn!” And IIRC, there was an OLD Three Musketeers candy bar commercial that started out, “Gadzooks! It’s the Three Musketeers!” ~VOW ---
**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 7, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857/40 "2012-02-07T03:39:59Z")
My Forgotten English page-a-day calendar entry for today reads: _ **Odds fish** : A corruption of “God’s flesh,” or body of Christ. A favorite expression of Charles II._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-stop-using-expletives-gadzooks-and-zounds/611857.md?page=3)