A few months back I made the conscious decision to start saying “gesundheit” instead of “bless you” in the effort to be a little more secular in my speech. Having successfully tackled that knee-jerk reaction to sneezing, I’m now wondering if I can train myself to stop saying “God” “Jesus” and “Christ” in casual speech. Because I say those all the time.
But I don’t want to go the Mormon way of saying “Gosh” “Jiminy” and “Criminy”. In addition to sounding a little silly, they draw attention to the fact that they are replacement words.
Anyone have any suggestions? Will I be stuck with just saying “oh man” a lot?
Filed under: whatevs
I find myself saying “Jeez louise!” a lot these days. “Jeez” works fine in a pinch.
How about “By Jove !” ?
But this is my point: “jeez” or “jove” are still referencing religion. But the non-religious exclamations like “my word” or “good grief” just sound silly.
Well, then there’s “shit !” and “fuck !”.
I’m afraid you don’t have many options when it comes to exclamations : it’s religious or it’s filthy. Or both.
Wait, the Italians say “Mamma mia !”…
In French you sometimes hear “Ah, mes aïeux !” (Ah, my forebears !), even if that’s a little dated. Also, “pauvre France !” (“poor France”) when commenting on the general state of things… I wonder if such things exist in english ?
Embrace the douche – its all about “dude”
http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/comics/uncategorized/2009-06-05-e38e6cf824a0fac7718d7d99a804fbb7.png
Maybe I’ll be like Sawyer from Lost and just say “son of a bitch” with various inflections ALL THE FREAKIN TIME.