Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Used to express surprise or annoyance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection slang Exclamation of fright, incredibility, shock, surprise or anger.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Jesus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortened form of Jesus. A minced oath.

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Examples

Comments

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  • After more than 50 years of using this term, it just dawned on me that it's short for "jesus," as in bejeezus, a.k.a. "bejesus."

    I'll have to remember not to use this around church people anymore.

    October 15, 2007

  • In this area it sometimes morphs into jeez o man. I have no idea what that is. ;-)

    October 15, 2007

  • I always hear jeez oh pete's.

    October 15, 2007

  • I've also heard "jeez-o peez-o," which I like very much.

    October 15, 2007

  • Skipv, honestly, who can live without this word?

    October 16, 2007

  • Well, apparently not me. I must have used it 20 times today. I mean, jeez...

    October 16, 2007

  • i like "jeez louise" myself.

    October 16, 2007

  • I always wondered about that Louise.

    October 16, 2007

  • Being the non-religious sort, I prefer "jiminy," short for "jiminy cricket," as an alternative.

    October 16, 2007

  • Hmm.... still religious, apparently:

    "exclamation of surprise, 1803, a disguised oath, probably for Jesu Domine "Jesus Lord." Extended form jiminy cricket is attested from 1848"

    (from www.etymonline.com)

    That Jesu sure gets around.

    October 16, 2007

  • Wait--Jiminy Cricket was named after Jesus? My head is spinning.

    October 16, 2007

  • "Who's in the house? J.C.!"

    October 16, 2007

  • What?! No! Now I have to stop saying jiminy cricket. Oh balls. (Don't tell me that's religious, too.) *grumbling to self in disgust*

    October 17, 2007

  • Now I'm wondering if the entire Pinocchio story is a thinly veiled religious lesson. Hmmm.

    October 17, 2007

  • Could very well be, when you think about it.

    October 17, 2007

  • Wasn't the Jiminy Cricket character just fabricated for the Disney cartoon, and named for the phrase? Pretty sure he didn't exist in the original story.

    October 17, 2007

  • No, talking crickets were in the original story, but not Jiminy Cricket the character.

    Actually, the original was very much a hard-luck tale--and gruesome. Also political, based on the climate of Tuscany at the time.

    October 17, 2007

  • Well, this wouldn't be the first time someone accused Disney of making an old story into a religious, racial, or even sexual parable.

    October 18, 2007

  • Didn't JC act as Pinocchio's conscience (and savior) in the Disney version? Kind of creepy.

    October 19, 2007

  • Why is that creepy?

    October 19, 2007

  • Better an icky insect than, um, nothing. Remember, Pinocchio was a blockhead.

    October 19, 2007

  • Quite literally.

    October 19, 2007

  • You gotta hand it to Disney, though--they made an icky insect less of an icky insect and more an annoying flibbertigibbet that reminds you of nothing so much as ... well, a conscience.

    In spats. What's up with the damn spats?

    October 20, 2007

  • Crickets are only icky when you keep them confined to cages for weeks. Then the smell gets pretty intense.

    October 20, 2007

  • You mean the rotting cricket chitin? Or the spats?

    Wait... does chitin even rot? Or just degrade?

    October 21, 2007

  • Actually it's the frass, as well as the expired crickets themselves. Ugh.

    October 21, 2007

  • Haha! Chained_bear: "What's up with the damn spats?"

    I always wondered that!

    October 22, 2007

  • Spats are cool, dammit!

    October 22, 2007

  • But decidedly less cool on a cricket, I think, than on a human. ;-)

    October 22, 2007

  • What if the cricket is your conscience?

    October 23, 2007

  • My conscience wouldn't be caught dead in spats, I'm afraid. Now boot slippers--they're a whole different type of footwear. ;-)

    October 23, 2007

  • My conscience definitely wears spats. And has a twirly cane.

    NOT a cricket, though.

    I only have one word for boot slippers: uggly!

    October 23, 2007

  • Wow! Snazzy conscience you have there, trivet!

    I don't wear boot slippers, really. Nor would my conscience. Lately, in fact, my conscience has taken to wearing clown shoes. I don't know what it thinks it's up to.

    October 23, 2007

  • Listen, don't get me wrong: spats rock. Out loud on toast. But not on that annoying, loudmouth cricket with the disproportionately large head! Who's he trying to kid, walking upright on two legs? And wearing a silk top hat, for Pete's sake?!

    And who the hell is Pete?!

    *froths*

    October 23, 2007

  • Jiminy's brother?

    October 23, 2007

  • Wonder if Pete is St. Peter?

    --But yeah, I always assumed that words like "jeez" were formed because no one actually wanted to blaspheme, but they wanted to use the useful phrase for that use (not to be used for the other use). So they figured that if they weren't actually saying "Jesus", it wasn't blasphemy, even if that's what they meant. Or perhaps they started to say it and bit it off short because they remembered they didn't want to say it.

    October 31, 2007

  • See also enclitic.

    June 30, 2008