On 7 May 2025, I posted Holy
Smokes! about the white or black smoke which the Roman Catholic Cardinals
in the Papal Conclave use to signal the status of the election of the next
pope. The post mentioned minced oaths in discussing the situation and I
promised to talk about that later. Well, here it is.
Minced oaths are phrases which can sound blasphemous but which are altered or disguised to be less explicit. They use indirect language, softened phrasing, or euphemisms. Think of the British exclamation Zounds!, which replaces God’s Wounds! The usage also exists in other languages but is very extensive in the English-language. Examples include: dang, darn, dagnabbit, gadzooks, gee whillikers, jeepers, blimey, good heavens, Holy Moly, Holy Cow, Holy Mackerel, Great Scot, Golly, and many more. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_minced_oaths
The idea of not saying the name of God out
loud because of its sacredness is an ancient Jewish concept. When the holy name, the Tetragrammaton JHWH, יהוה, occurs in their
sacred texts, Jews still today substitute Adonai ,אֲדֹנָי , meaning Lord,
or Ha-Shem, הַשֵּׁם, meaning the Name, or Elohim, אֱלֹהִים, meaning God.
Saying the holy name of God out
loud is considered to be disrespectful, sacrilegious, and offensive. Many
observant English-speaking Jews carry this even further, writing the word God
as G-d.
James, the brother of Jesus, warned
against the careless use of words. James 3:2-10. Being able to control
one’s language is considered to be a sign of spiritual maturity.
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