Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to express anger, surprise, or indignation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An exclamation formerly used as an oath or as an expression of anger or wonder.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- interj. An exclamation formerly used as an oath, and an expression of anger or wonder.
Etymologies
- Abbreviation of God's wounds, with reference to Christ's wounds before the crucifixion. Compare strewth, blimey, gadzooks, 'sblood. (Wiktionary)
- Shortening and alteration of God's wounds!. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When you go home tonight, roll some twenty siders with friends, use the word "zounds" in a sentence, then leaf through the 1E Dungeon Master's Guide and marvel at the breadth of the man's imagination.”
“Who that utters the word "zounds," imagines that he is speaking of such awful and inconceivable things as "God's wounds," though literally he is doing so?”
“Yet time was, when the innocent word "zounds" was written with the same culpatory dashes and hyphens as the "damns that have had their day;" and "pigs," we suppose, were exenterated in like manner: suggested only by their heads and tails, -- the first letter and the last.”
“Natalie Angier weighs in on the human proclivity for cursing in a lengthy essay in the NYT: "The Jacobean dramatist Ben Jonson peppered his plays with fackings and "peremptorie Asses," and Shakespeare could hardly quill a stanza without inserting profanities of the day like "zounds" or "sblood”
“BTW, did you know that zounds! is a foreshortening of God's Wounds?”
“Labels: comics comments: annie said ... zounds! where did you meet this amazing scoundrel of graphic wonder!”
“June 3, 2009 at 7:35 am uh ohes… parrothead starting to zounds like Igor….”
Da dusts bunnies quit - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“He was in deep awshucks mode, even admitting twice -- zounds!”
“February 7, 2008 at 10:45 am fear… is zounds liek… Boing boing boing…”
Did you heer dat? - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Hmmm…zounds liek ai hab tew draw up an action plan outline fur Nov 2.”
Player Cat - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘zounds’.
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one word exclamations
keep it rated G please, thanks!
( open list, randomness )zoiks, sheesh, gosh, shucks, jeez, woot, heck, thunderation, oops, gadzooks, what, hey and 90 more...
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phrontistery-z
from phrontistery.info
zyzzyva, zythum, zymurgy, zymotic, zymotechnics, zymosis, zymosimeter, zymometer, zymology, zymogenic, zymite, zymic and 208 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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Nice archaic words
oneiric, tisane, pecksniffian, eftsoons, forsooth, egad, ensorcell, zounds, fie, huzzah, consarn it, prithee and 2 more...
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zzzzzz
Featuring a zee or two.
pizzazz, syzygy, chutzpah, zip, zap, intermezzi, jazz, mizzenmast, zoonosis, razzamatazz, zamzodden, zounds and 1 more...
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Formerly
Being a list of words with definitions containing the word "formerly."
formerly, armorer, link, plummet, brank, pall-mall, florin, quondam, erstwhile, imponderable, recant, ether and 32 more...
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Yoinks, Zoinks, & Zounds!
A collection of interjections and verbal ejaculations.
yoinks, zoinks, zounds, crikey, lawsy, oomph, unf, shazbot, lordy, mox nix, cosmic, no dice and 30 more...
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Zee's zees
zounds, syzygy, pizzaz, zamzodden, xyzzy, zzzax, ziz, razzamatazz, razzmatazz, zoonosis, syzygy, chutzpah and 11 more...
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Les Misérables
A selection of words from the epic by Victor Hugo
perquisites, dispensations, execrate, spikenard, fireplaace, effeminate foppery, delaine, hoarfrost, lackadaisicalness, ort, geldings, milch and 103 more...
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Dan: You read this already. — Your p...
Long ago, I learned a useful habit from a good friend: Every time he looked up a word in his dictionary, he’d put a mark next to it. His explanation for this was vague at best, but I understood a...
dittography, haplology, haplography, idiomology, cacoepy, orthoepist, psellism, pronunciation spe..., galbe, theropod, publican, sciolist and 111 more...
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known words
words wot i already knew
antisyzygy, calenture, shill, saudade, sehnsucht, squonk, steganographic, anomie, wiggy, grok, hermeneutics, agrise and 206 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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Carlos' Words
monstropolous, absquatulate
pinguid, triffid, calque, refulgent, monstropolous, Seanchaí, clinquant, Chryselephantine ..., peavey, milium, swage, Burtillon, Burtil... and 217 more...
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deidionysus's list
Words, words, words!
cartesian, shavian, dithyramb, dreadnaught, lea, adamantine, titanomachy, theomachy, aethereal, ambrosia, ambrosial, aether and 183 more...
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gerwitz's Words
erudite, autodidactic, callipygian, ouroboros, zounds, fie, wabi, sabi, gedankenexperiment, zeitgeist, eliminativism, aether and 157 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for zounds.
ruzuzu "I had noticed a strange apparition there and hoped to see it again--a tall woman sitting alone, dressed in what I took to be the height of fashion. One day she reappeared. She wore a hat resembling a nest on which an exotic bird was resting, and an elaborate dress of what I think used to be called 'changeable satin,' blues and greens of a peacock's feathers intermingling. Before eating it was necessary that she remove her gloves and raise her veil with gestures of apparently uncalculated grace. Zounds! What was this?"
--Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder Sep 4, 2010
minerva Compare Oons (also God's wounds) Oct 11, 2007
reesetee And how about bloody (thought to have come from "by Our Lady")? Jul 19, 2007
arby Compare crikey ("Christ kill me") and blimey ("God blind me"). I forgot about this one tho. Jul 18, 2007
sionnach God's wounds! Feb 14, 2007