--But yeah, I always assumed that words like "jeez" were formed because no one actually wanted to blaspheme, but they wanted to use the useful phrase for that use (not to be used for the other use). So they figured that if they weren't actually saying "Jesus", it wasn't blasphemy, even if that's what they meant. Or perhaps they started to say it and bit it off short because they remembered they didn't want to say it.
Listen, don't get me wrong: spats rock. Out loud on toast. But not on that annoying, loudmouth cricket with the disproportionately large head! Who's he trying to kid, walking upright on two legs? And wearing a silk top hat, for Pete's sake?!
I don't wear boot slippers, really. Nor would my conscience. Lately, in fact, my conscience has taken to wearing clown shoes. I don't know what it thinks it's up to.
You gotta hand it to Disney, though--they made an icky insect less of an icky insect and more an annoying flibbertigibbet that reminds you of nothing so much as ... well, a conscience.
Wasn't the Jiminy Cricket character just fabricated for the Disney cartoon, and named for the phrase? Pretty sure he didn't exist in the original story.
See also enclitic.
Wonder if Pete is St. Peter?
--But yeah, I always assumed that words like "jeez" were formed because no one actually wanted to blaspheme, but they wanted to use the useful phrase for that use (not to be used for the other use). So they figured that if they weren't actually saying "Jesus", it wasn't blasphemy, even if that's what they meant. Or perhaps they started to say it and bit it off short because they remembered they didn't want to say it.
Jiminy's brother?
Listen, don't get me wrong: spats rock. Out loud on toast. But not on that annoying, loudmouth cricket with the disproportionately large head! Who's he trying to kid, walking upright on two legs? And wearing a silk top hat, for Pete's sake?!
And who the hell is Pete?!
*froths*
Wow! Snazzy conscience you have there, trivet!
I don't wear boot slippers, really. Nor would my conscience. Lately, in fact, my conscience has taken to wearing clown shoes. I don't know what it thinks it's up to.
My conscience definitely wears spats. And has a twirly cane.
NOT a cricket, though.
I only have one word for boot slippers: uggly!
My conscience wouldn't be caught dead in spats, I'm afraid. Now boot slippers--they're a whole different type of footwear. ;-)
What if the cricket is your conscience?
But decidedly less cool on a cricket, I think, than on a human. ;-)
Spats are cool, dammit!
Haha! Chained_bear: "What's up with the damn spats?"
I always wondered that!
Actually it's the frass, as well as the expired crickets themselves. Ugh.
You mean the rotting cricket chitin? Or the spats?
Wait... does chitin even rot? Or just degrade?
Crickets are only icky when you keep them confined to cages for weeks. Then the smell gets pretty intense.
You gotta hand it to Disney, though--they made an icky insect less of an icky insect and more an annoying flibbertigibbet that reminds you of nothing so much as ... well, a conscience.
In spats. What's up with the damn spats?
Quite literally.
Better an icky insect than, um, nothing. Remember, Pinocchio was a blockhead.
Why is that creepy?
Didn't JC act as Pinocchio's conscience (and savior) in the Disney version? Kind of creepy.
Well, this wouldn't be the first time someone accused Disney of making an old story into a religious, racial, or even sexual parable.
No, talking crickets were in the original story, but not Jiminy Cricket the character.
Actually, the original was very much a hard-luck tale--and gruesome. Also political, based on the climate of Tuscany at the time.
Wasn't the Jiminy Cricket character just fabricated for the Disney cartoon, and named for the phrase? Pretty sure he didn't exist in the original story.
Could very well be, when you think about it.
Now I'm wondering if the entire Pinocchio story is a thinly veiled religious lesson. Hmmm.
What?! No! Now I have to stop saying jiminy cricket. Oh balls. (Don't tell me that's religious, too.) *grumbling to self in disgust*
"Who's in the house? J.C.!"
Wait--Jiminy Cricket was named after Jesus? My head is spinning.
Hmm.... still religious, apparently:
"exclamation of surprise, 1803, a disguised oath, probably for Jesu Domine "Jesus Lord." Extended form jiminy cricket is attested from 1848"
(from www.etymonline.com)
That Jesu sure gets around.
Being the non-religious sort, I prefer "jiminy," short for "jiminy cricket," as an alternative.
I always wondered about that Louise.
i like "jeez louise" myself.
Well, apparently not me. I must have used it 20 times today. I mean, jeez...
Skipv, honestly, who can live without this word?
I've also heard "jeez-o peez-o," which I like very much.
I always hear jeez oh pete's.
In this area it sometimes morphs into jeez o man. I have no idea what that is. ;-)
After more than 50 years of using this term, it just dawned on me that it's short for "jesus," as in bejeezus, a.k.a. "bejesus."
I'll have to remember not to use this around church people anymore.