However, since both diva and prima donna have changed their meanings a bit in the past 100 years, some explanation is in order. Molesworth (Ennis Graham), Hathercourt, 1878ĭefinition: a famous and successful woman who is very attractive and fashionable especially : an attractive and successful female performer or celebrityĭiva came to the English language in the late 19th century from an Italian word for 'goddess.' Originally, it referred to a prima donna. You will think me a terrible gossip, Mary, but in a general way I really don't listen to idle talk, only I felt so interested in Captain Beverley after what I saw, and I can't believe any harm of him.

Yet when the word first appeared in English, about a thousand years ago, it had the meaning 'a godparent' or 'a person spiritually related to another through being a sponsor at baptism.' This may seem like an unlikely meaning for a word that we now associate with tabloid journalism and whispered innuendo, but it makes a good deal of sense when one examines the etymology: gossip comes from the Old English word godsibb, which it itself comes from the words god and sibb ('related'). The primary meanings of gossip today are 'rumor or report of an intimate nature' (as a noun) and 'to relate gossip' (as a verb).

Henry Morgan, Boston Inside Out! Sins of a Great City!, 1883ĭefinition: a person who habitually retails facts, rumors, or behind-the-scenes information of an intimate, personal, or sensational nature Gosh! Why, I counted 26 go up to the bar an’ drink in twenty minutes. Wal, sir, I’m blest ef they didn’t come right out from mass an’ steer straight for that liquor shop. If all these euphemisms are a bit too much you can always fall back on that old standby, gorblimey ('God blind me'). If you want to make mention of something belonging to God, but don’t want to mention his name or his body you may use odds fish, which may refer, depending on who you ask, to either the fish or to the flesh of God. Moving somewhat further afield, our language has a variety of ways of saying 'God’s body': gadsbodikins, odsbodikins, and ods-bobs. We also have odsbud ('God’s blood'), zounds ('God’s wounds'), and struth (which stands for 'God’s truth'). We have gadzooks (sometimes written as odszooks, which is a euphemism for god attached to zooks the latter word may or may not represent hooks, since 'god’s hooks' would signify the nails used for the crucifixion of Jesus. Then we have some slightly more colorful terms, such as doggone and dodgasted, which stand in for 'God damn' and “God blasted,' respectively.īut this is really just the tip of the iceberg, for our tongue has many, many more such words, some of which are quite creative ways of not saying something. Many of these are simple and short substitutions for the word God itself, such as gosh or golly. This would appear to be the case for many of the English-speaking people, judged by the large number of euphemistic terms we have for God, and for god-related things. In many cultures, using the name of a deity is considered to fall somewhere between improper and scandalous. Definition: used as a mild oath or to express surprise

Strafe meaning