minced oath

English

Noun

Examples
cripes for Christ crud, sugar, or shoot for crap or shit darn or dang for damn geez for Jesus gosh, gad, gawd, or goodness for God heck for hell

minced oath (plural minced oaths)

1. A type of euphemism based on a profanity or blasphemy that has been altered to remove the objectionable characteristics of the original expression; a polite version of an expletive.

   Oh my gosh, that clock is gorgeous!

   What the heck is he looking for?

   Darn it! My dad couldn’t afford me a new bike.

   Holy cow, that statue is huge!

Translations

euphemism based on a profanity or blasphemy

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 碎誓 (suìshì)

• Dutch: bastaardvloek (nl) m
• Finnish: kirosanan korvike, kirosanan kiertoilmaus
• French: formule d’évitement f, forme édulcorée f
• German: abgemildertes Schimpfwort n, entschärfter Fluch m
• Hungarian: szépített​/​megszépített​/​enyhített​/​eufemisztikus káromkodás​/​átkozódás​/​szitkozódás​/​szitokszó​/​szitok
• Tagalog: babaw-mura

See also

• expletive deleted
• Category:English minced oaths
• Category:Minced oaths by language

Further reading

• minced oath on Wikipedia.Wikipedia