Minced oaths are corrupted forms of (usually religion-related) swear words that originally arose in English culture sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation. The censorship caused people to develop a wide variety of minced oaths to avoid swearing on holy names. They were used for swearing and other types of interjections. With time they came to have a mildly comedic effect.
Since they avoid using profanities or holy words, the minced oaths are not equivalent in strength (likelihood to cause offence) as their derivations listed below. However, some of the more modern minced oaths should be avoided in polite speech (e.g. mofo).
Begorrah = By God
Bejabbers = By Jesus
Bleeding heck = Bloody Hell
Blimey = Blind me
Blinking heck = Bloody Hell
By George = By God
By golly = By God
By gosh = By God
By gum = By God
By Jove = By God (Jove is another name for Zeus, the most powerful Roman deity)
Cheese n' Rice = Jesus Christ
Chrissakes = For Christ's sake
Cor blimey = God blind me
Crikey = Christ
Cripes = Christ
Dagnammit = Damnation
Dang = Damn
Dangnabbit = Damnation
Dangnation = Damnation
Darn = Damn
Darnation = Damnation
Doggone = God damn or Dog on it
Drat = God rot it
Flaming heck = Fucking Hell
Flipping heck = Fucking Hell
For crying out loud = For Christ's sake; also, a way of hinting at 'fuck' or sanitising it after speaking ("Fuck... rying out loud")
A mincedoath is an expression based on a profanity which has been altered to reduce or remove the disagreeable or objectionable characteristics of the original expression.
The use of mincedoaths originally began in the United Kingdom sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation.
Some mincedoaths became well-known as a result of use in theatre, where there were sometimes strict taboos on the use of certain religious phrases; many survive to this day in literary contexts (such as the Shakespearean "'swounds" or "zounds").
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