Idiom "sweat bullets"-----influence of German?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 9/3/06, David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> One other possibility is a discomfort with the mention of "blood" leading to
> a euphemism beginning w/the same letter, on the model of the substitution of
> C-words for "Christ" in Crap! or Cripes! (whick share the initial /kr/) or
> SH-words for "shit"--shucks! or sugar!

Well, if we're going the euphemization route, what about the
possibility that "sweating bullets" is a minced form of "shitting
bullets"? Or alternatively "shitting bullets" is a dysphemization of
"sweating bullets" on the model of "shitting bricks". (Hmm, I see
"sweating bricks" is also attested. Definitely some cross-pollination
between "shit" and "sweat" forms.)


--Ben Zimmer

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