py chiminey

English

Interjection

py chiminey

(Germanesque, nonce word) Pronunciation spelling of by Jiminy.
- 1894 December 1, “Grocer Gilb Thought It Funny”, in The New-York Times, volume 44, number 13,503, New-York, page 10:
  A policeman who was standing on the corner tried to catch Gilb as he sailed by, but missed him. Gilb lay where he struck for a few minutes and then got up. There was a long cut over his eye and another on the back of his head. He rubbed his head, looked at the wreck of his wagon, and said: ¶ “Well, py chiminey, dat vas a funny ting.”
- 1906 May, Caroline Lockhart, “Marked Mit Cats”, in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, volume 77, number 461, page 582:
  “Den, py chiminey!” roared Mr. Vogel, “I vill keep this cat if I haf to build a cat hotel. I am made ashamed to dink I raised a vife and childern vat vould gif a cat like this to the Cruelty. […]”
- 1910, Edwin Balmer, William MacHarg, “The Man Higher Up”, in The Achievements of Luther Trant, Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, page 164:
  “What, he!” cried the stout German. “For why should I tell him about them? He knows nothing. He has bought my time to instruct classes; he has not bought, py chiminey! everything—even the soul Gott gave me!”
- 1924, Sidney Herschel Small, chapter 4, in Fourscore, Book 1: Westward, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 102:
  “No,” John agreed. “It ain’t my argument. But I bet I make it mine! So!” He swept his hand across the other’s cheek. “Now, py chiminey, if you got to be a brute, be one with me! When I get done, you listen to Owen, I bet you!”