"jeezum crow"

[Bill Palmer]

"Christ on a bicycle"

... also w/ a middle initial "Jesus H Christ"

Bill Palmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 3:10 PM
Subject: Re: "jeezum crow"


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> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "jeezum crow"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2:46 PM -0400 10/29/10, Ann Burlingham wrote:
>>On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
>>wrote:
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>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>>  Subject:      "jeezum crow"
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  taboo-avoidance form for "jesus christ"; it appeared in a comment
>>>from a Facebook friend who grew up in Maine. googling pulls up
>>>Vermont and New Brunswick as well, and another Facebook friend
>>>added northern NY. DARE has it for Vermont and Northern NY, but
>>>it's clear that the distribution is wider, and almost surely takes
>>>in New Hampshire as well.
>>>
>>>  though apparently still geographically restricted. does anyone
>>>have reports of the form from speakers without a history in this
>>>region?  (the friend who first used it now lives in California, and
>>>before that in Boston, but she picked it up in her Maine
>>>childhood.)  Jon, do you have it in your files?
>>>
>>>  almost surely it was innovated by people in a very small group --
>>>since it's fairly distant from the model -- and then spread, but
>>>this is the sort of history we'll probably never be able to unearth.
>>
>>The phrase seemed familiar to me, but maybe that's from going to
>>school in New England. A quick survey of co-workers: the one in her
>>fifties who grew up in western NY: never heard of it. The 33-year-old
>>who grew up all over, knows it from going to school at SUNY
>>Plattsburgh, where, he reports, there was (is?) a band by that name.
>>
>>I was surprised to hear or read someone else using "Christ on a
>>crutch". I have no idea where I got that one from, either but I use it
>>a lot.
>>
> From the same family (but perhaps not the same store) as "Christ on a
> cracker".
>
> LH
>
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