7 Phrases You Probably Didn't Know Were Extremely Blasphemous

We have all heard of the phrase "hocus pocus" and refer it to magicians and "pulling rabbits out of a hat." But this phrase goes back a long long way; while still used by magicians of old, its roots come from the words which the Priest says during Mass in their original Latin: "Hoc est corpus unum meum" - "THIS IS MY BODY". At this moment, the Bread turns into Christ Himself!
The demonic took these sacred words and twisted them around. "Hoc est" becomes "hocus", and "Corpus" became "pocus".

"Now what Reverend John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury (1630 – 22 November 1694) wrote in his sermons about hocus pocus was this:

'In all probability those common juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation.'"

Meaning::

An exclamation - a euphemistic shortening of God's hooks (the nails on the cross).

Origin::

As the meaning suggests, this was originally two words - gad's zooks, which was sometimes hyphenated and now almost always spelled as a single word.

Gad was a common term used to avoid speaking the name of God - an example of a minced oath. That taboo, although still influential amongst the devout, is now much weaker and the use of gad has diminished as a consequence. In the 17th century we would have had a choice of such 'gad' words - gadsbobs, gadsbodikins, gadsbud, gadsbudlikins, gadslid, gadsniggers, gadsnigs, gadsnouns, gadsokers, gadsookers, gadsprecious, gadswookers, gadswoons - gad pretty much anything you like. These share a format with many reduplications - many of which also take an existing word and add a secondary made-up word for emphasis.

The only gad... form to have survived is gadzooks. That is still used but it has gone the same way as prithee and odd's bodkins, that is, stagey allusions to history that are wheeled out for comic effect - Gadzooks Mrs Miggins, bring me more veal pies. Use of gad with its original intent may have almost disappeared but such obvious replacements of words with similar-sounding invented words that have less risk of offending is still with us - feck being a recent example.

Gad began life in the early 17th century, for example:

Robert Armin's A nest of ninnies, 1608 - "And, gad, she will." and Beaumont & Fletcher's The knight of the burning pestle, 1609 - "By gad, if any of them all blow wind in the tail on him, I'll be hanged."

Gadzooks soon spawned a shortened form of its own - zooks. This is first recorded in Thomas Heywood's The late Lancashire witches, 1634 - "Zookes thou art so brave a fellow that I will stick to thee."

You've probably never heard this outside of Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast crying it out a couple times. "Sacre Bleu" is a "minced oath" for, "Sang de Dieu", which, translated from french is: "God's Blood".
Minced oaths are a sub-group of euphemisms used to avoid swearing when expressing surprise or annoyance.
Sacre Bleu is also one of the a "milder forms" of the word, "Sacrament", from the Quebecois form of sacrilegious swears, called "Sacres". The Quebecois (Canadians from Quebec) are known for their unspeakably blasphemous swears (dating back to the 1850s!) Sacrament being the oldest known French form of swear words, "equivalent" to "God-damn it".

"Zounds", with its first known use in the 1500s also has a religious origin.
The oath "Zounds" changed pronunciation—changing the vowel to be as in the word found, so that it no longer sounded like its original meaning of "By God's wounds". First recorded in 1590-1600; variant of 'swounds. Word Origin, euphemistic shortening of "God's wounds".

"ODDS BOTKINS" is a euphemistic variation of "God's Body".

HOLY MACKEREL: Watered-down version of the old oath Holy Mary. Mackerel was also a nickname for Catholics because they eat fish on Fridays.

Derivatives also include:

Holy smoke
Holy mackerel
Holy Moses
Holy cat
Holy Molly (euphemism for "Holy Mary", Molly being a nickname for Mary)
Holy Moley

Minced oaths are a sub-group of euphemisms used to avoid swearing when expressing surprise or annoyance.
There are so many of what were called "minced oaths" from way way way back that it is almost mind blowing. Especially to one who grew up spouting off these words on a regular basis.
The point to these "minced oaths" was to change the original "blasphemy word" which was usually, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, or Christ.. keep the first one or two letters and make up another word. So they could say that instead of the original blasphemy. As in the early/mid 19th century one could been thrown into prison for uttering such words.
Such "minced oaths" are as follows:

Crivvens --> Christ defend us
Dad gum --> God damn
Dagnabbit --> God damn it
Dagnammit --> God damn it
Dang --> Damn
Dangnabbit --> God damn it
Dangnation --> Damnation
Darn --> Damn
Darnation --> Damnation
Doggone --> God damn
Drat --> God rot it
Egad --> A God
For crying out loud --> For Christ's sake
For Pete's sake --> For St. Peter's sake
For the love of Mike --> For St. Michael's sake
Gadzooks --> God's hooks
Gat Dangit --> God damn it
Gee --> Jesus
Gee whizz --> Jesus
Gee willikers --> Jesus
Godfrey Daniel --> God
Golly Gee willikers --> Jesus
Good garden party --> Good God
Good grief --> Good God
Goodness gracious --> Good God
Gorblimey --> God blind me
Gosh --> God
Gosh darned --> God damned
Jason Crisp --> Jesus Christ
Jebus --> Jesus
Jeepers Creepers --> Jesus Christ
Jeez --> Jesus
Jeezy Creezy --> Jesus Christ
Jehosaphat --> Jesus
Jiminy Christmas --> Jesus Christ
Jiminy Cricket --> Jesus Christ
Judas Priest --> Jesus Christ
Land sakes --> For the Lord's sake
Lawks a mercy --> Lord have mercy
My goodness --> My God
My gosh --> My God
Odds-bodkins --> God's sweet body
Strewth --> God's Truth
Suffering succotash --> Suffering Saviour

As aforementioned, the well-known blasphemous Quebecois had such words as well only worse, as they were shorter forms of serious blasphemes used as the highest profanities. (For example, the use of the word "sacrament" to mean "God damn it", and "tabernacle" as the F word. Some known "minced oaths" of Quebec are as follows:

torrieu: (tort à Dieu) "harm to God"

baptême (baptism): batince, batêche, bateau

câlice (Chalice) : câline, câlif, câlique, câline de bine, câlibine, câlibouette

calvaire (Calvary): calvâsse, calvinsse, calvinouche, calvinus, calvinisse, calverasse

ciboire (Cibiorium): cibolle, cibollaque, ciboulle, ciboulette, gériboire

criss (Christ) : cristie, crime, criff, cliss, christophe, Christophe Colomb, crimpuff (from the English "cream puff")

osti (Host): titi, estifie, ostifie, ostique, ostine

sacrament: sac à papier, sacréfice, sacramouille, sacre bleu, Sacramento

tabarnak (Tabernacle): tabarnouche, batarnak (anagram of tabarnak), tabarslaque, simonac, tabarouette, tabarnache, barnac, tabarnane, taberolls, tabréré, tabebouts, tabebruns, tabergaut, tabertix, taberguermon, tabermeuns, taberuph, tabermost, taberax, taberkalu, taberpuch, tabarlan, tabarlie, taberson, tabersiouf, taberboog, taberkhalil, tabeurn, tabouère (merge of tabarnak and siboire), tabarnoune, tabarnanne

The word bloody means, something that is bloodied, of course, but it also began as a profanity in England - blaspheming the Blood of Christ.

It may seem a bit daunting at first, removing all forms of curses and oaths from our language, especially since we have all been raised in such a diluted and perverse society.
But with Christ, all things are possible!
Here are 10 ways to reclaim purity in our words, and make reparation for all the horrible sins of blasphemy:

1. Confession - confess your sins, mentioning your problem with cursing. Confide in your spiritual director (don't have one? Get one.)
2. The Holy Mass - we must take advantage of the Holy Eucharist, every chance we get! Christ and I become one, DNA, blood, everything. What other way could we truly become more like Christ than receiving Him under the appearance of Bread & Wine?
3. To start, use silly words - Using words like BAGEL, PEPPERMINT, and so on that have no religious or strange connotations may be used to begin weaning off the cursing. But the main goal is to rid ourselves of using any sort of slurs!
4. Praying in the moment / Make the Sign of the Cross - In the heat of the moment, utter and silent prayer to Jesus, Mother Mary and Saint Joseph. Ask them to help you overcome this vice.
5. Say the Rosary - There is so much that can be said about the Holy Rosary that not even a hundred books could cover it! I suggest you read St. Louis de Montforts books, "The Secret of the Rosary" and begin saying at least a decade a day to start!
6. The Golden Arrow - Say these prayers in reparation, asking Jesus as well to help you with your trouble.
MAY THE MOST HOLY, MOST SACRED, MOST ADORABLE, MOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE AND UNUTTERABLE NAME OF GOD BE ALWAYS PRAISED, BLESSED, LOVED, ADORED AND GLORIFIED, IN HEAVEN, ON EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH, BY ALL THE CREATURES OF GOD, AND BY THE SACRED HEART OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR. AMEN.

After receiving this prayer, Sister Mary of St. Peter was given a vision in which she saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus delightfully wounded by this "Go/den Arrow" as torrents of graces streamed from It for the conversion of sinners.

REPARATION PRAYER
Eternal Father, turn away Thy angry gaze from our guilty people whose face has become unsightly in Thine eyes. Look instead upon the Face of Thy Beloved Son, for this is the Face of Him in Whom Thou art well pleased. We now offer Thee this Holy Face, covered with shame and disfigured by bloody bruises in reparation for the crimes of our age in order to appease Thine anger, justly provoked against us. Because Thy Divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon His Head all the sins of His members, that they might be spared, we now beg of Thee, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. AMEN.


AN ASPIRATION TO THE ETERNAL FATHER
TO BE FREQUENTLY RECITED DURING THE DAY

ETERNAL FATHER, we offer You the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with blood, sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers, and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day. AMEN.


PRAYER TO REPRODUCE
THE IMAGE OF GOD IN OUR SOULS

Our Lord told Sister Mary ot St. Peter that the Image ot His Holy Face is like a Divine Stamp which, it applied to souls, through prayer, has the power of imprinting anew within them the Image ot God.

I SALUTE THEE, I ADORE THEE, AND I LOVE THEE,
OH ADORABLE FACE OF MY BELOVED JESUS,
AS THE NOBLE STAMP OF DIVINITY!
COMPLETELY SURRENDERING MY SOUL TO THEE,
I MOST HUMBLY BEG THEE TO STAMP THIS SEAL UPON US ALL,
SO THAT "THE IMAGE OF GOD MAY ONCE MORE BE REPRODUCED BY ITS IMPRINT IN OUR SOULS. AMEN.

7. Ask a friend to help out - Join a good friend in your fight to clean up the language and purify your words!
8. Learn to speak better - Studying the English language to learn to speak more eloquently will give something else to work on while letting go of cursing and saying oaths. When giving up a vice, it must be replaced with good. Aside from prayers, learn to enunciate each word, familiarize yourself with good grammar and so on!
9. Invoke a special patron Saint - Take a Saint, or Blessed or Venerable, read about their lives, study their prayer life. Do this for different ones until you find one that especially touches you. Ask this person to become your patron, and familiarize yourself with them. Buy a holy card of them, and so on. They can do very much for you!
10. Invoke the Souls in Purgatory! - The poor souls in purgatory very rarely have anyone to pray for them, as they cannot pray for themselves but they CAN pray for others! As many of them are in there for using such language, confessing the sin, but not having done the required penance and therefore suffering for it.. they can be a huge spiritual help! And, in the process, you are quickening their suffering and helping them get to heaven quicker. Offer a mass, a rosary, a prayer, sprinkle holy water and so on for them!