God's teeth and...

[margot j. bourassa]

A friend asked me if I knew the origin of the phrase "God's teeth and testicles". She remembers her mother, who is Irish, saying it when she was young. Any ideas?

[Nancy J. Gill]

mbou...@direct.ca (margot j. bourassa) wrote:

>A friend asked me if I knew the origin of the phrase "God's teeth and testicles". She remembers her mother, who is Irish, saying it when she was young. Any ideas?

T.H.White, in _The Once and Future King_, has a character
express dismay by uttering "a long string of Gallic remarks,
including the so-called William the Conqueror's oath of 'Per
Splendorem Dei', and the 'Pasque Dieu' which was the
imaginary King Louis the Eleventh's idea of a joke. Inspired
by the royal train of thought he added the exclamations of
Rufus, Henry the First, John, and Henry the Third, which
were, in that order, By the Holy Face of Lucca, By God's
Death, By God's Teeth, and By God's Head."

In medieval times, religious relics from vials of the
Virgin's milk to pieces of the True Cross were believed in
and revered--and what would guarantee the truth of an
staement more than swearing to its veracity on one of these
relics? "So help me, God" is still seen as the ultimate
testament of truth, with its implication of divine
retribution lurking in the background, ready to strike down
the transgressor.

Nancy J. Gill (njg...@ix.netcom.com)
Alameda, CA

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you don't know
how to use the English language."
San Francisco Examiner
rejection letter to Rudyard Kipling, 1889