Blin instead of bylat, just in case Babushka is within earshot and you don’t fancy the rolling pin bouncing off the side of your head. Again.
The Gordon Bennett I know was a memorial hall I tendered for and built back in the 1980s
It was named after a local county and parish councillor.
Both or even more explanations can be simultaneously true … Using trusty Wiki … The original Gordon Bennett was a New York publisher who financed the Stanley expedition to locate Livingstone ..and therefore related to amazement . His son also a paper publisher and organised the races I referred to ..(I used to notice signs relating to the races on obscure roads in Ireland for races run in 1903 ..Apparently the elder Bennett was into extravagance and obnoxious behaviour ..like whipping the tablecloth off during a banquet ..and finally as a substitute for God in Heaven ..which sort of sounds similar ..and would be blasphemy .
Blyat or bylat?
The first one… ![]()
I definitely utter a Blimey, but not a Gor, it adds an extra syllable.
Daft apeth. Not just daft ape.
I don’t really know from whence it came into my vocabulary, merely that it did at some time in my mid twenties. I’ve never been into blasphemy so it wouldn’t be anything to do with that…
However, I have been (and still am) into thoroughly enjoying Life, often being openly amazed at what I see, hear and read, when such is warranted
so I’ll continue to trundle along my chosen verbal path… ![]()
And a whole new world!
Don’t hear many of those these days - nor ‘Strewth!’
Of course this might be a consequence of living in a small Aveyron village…
When I was in the brownies 100 years ago, two of the girls were told off by Brown Owl for saying Cor blimey because it’s blasphemous. Lonnie Donegan’s ‘My old man’s a dustman’ has a line about the dad wearing ‘cor blimey trousers’.
Equally, Crikey is blasphemous.
Only if you believe in the first place, which is only a control mechanism.
‘Zounds!
Daft ha’porth when written, iirc, or “daft halfpennyworth”, in full.
There was an aversion to saying “God” as an expletive, when I was younger, that had (I think) nothing to do with blasphemy, but was to set children a good example. “Gawd” could quickly be “corrected” to “Gordon Bennett”.
My grandfather’s version was “Gordon Highlanders”.
It’s like « mince » and « punaise » or « purée », isn’t it?
Of course it was blasphemy .. Now the people in on your street and your age might not have been “godfearing” but the social norms were …
Which I think was short for “God’s Wounds”, a reference to the Crucifixion and therefore also blasphemous.
See also “gadswoons” and “zooterkins”. ![]()
Step away from the dictionary, thou dastardly churl!
Reminds me of my late MIL who was a 100% east end cockney and said phrases like that but when she answered the phone, she became the first Hyacinth Bucket
Yes, cf also god’s hooks, by our lady, may god blind me, etc etc
In Quebec where they are very religious compared to France, their swearwords are often to do with communion regalia so you hear tabernacle , calice and ciboire (pyx, communion cup, pyx or ciborium) these are not words with any significance beyond what they are, in France - no shock value at all.
By the way, do we know if anyone has answered the question “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin”?
With modern electron microscope technology it ought to be possible to settle that one fairly easily I would have thought… ![]()
I’m sure the answer would be zero. If you were an angelic being, why on earth would you want to do such a thing?
