Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

A query on phrase origin

284 views
Skip to first unread message

Microsoc

unread,
Oct 28, 1992, 1:51:18 PM10/28/92
to
An expostulation which I am fond of using is "Ye gods! (and little fishes")
I am _sure_ that I didn't make this up.. and yet I can't find its origin
(I've tried OED, Brewer's, Fowler, ODQ etc). Any ideas?

Marc Read

Seth L. Blumberg

unread,
Oct 28, 1992, 9:14:18 PM10/28/92
to

Well, the "little fishes" part obviously refers to the fish as the symbol of
Jesus Christ. (Someone please remind me how that symbolism originated? By
email, please, not as a post.)

>Marc Read

Seth L. Blumberg \ Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.
sl...@columbia.edu (play) \ Blumberg's Corollary: And the rest ain't so
se...@ctr.columbia.edu (work) \ hot, either.
> No one I know shares my opinions, least of all Columbia University. <

Glen Ditchfield

unread,
Oct 29, 1992, 9:29:41 AM10/29/92
to
In article <1992Oct28....@black.ox.ac.uk> micr...@black.ox.ac.uk (Microsoc) writes:
>An expostulation which I am fond of using is "Ye gods! (and little fishes")
>I am _sure_ that I didn't make this up...

I remember it from the ancient "Doctor in the House" television series,
where it was the favorite exclamation of Professor (later Sir Geoffrey)
Loftus. Perhaps the series writers got it from the book of the same name.

Paul Burnett

unread,
Oct 29, 1992, 12:59:00 AM10/29/92
to
TO: micr...@black.ox.ac.uk (Microsoc)

M>An expostulation which I am fond of using is "Ye gods! (and little fishes")
M>I am _sure_ that I didn't make this up.. and yet I can't find its origin

I always assumed it used to be "The Gods!", with the thorn letter
(_not_ "Y") mis-used, as usual. Sorta like "Oh God!".
---
. EZ 1.39 . Entered Thursday, 10/29/92, 7:22 am, San Jose, CA

Microsoc

unread,
Oct 31, 1992, 4:33:42 AM10/31/92
to
In article <417.18...@pcs.sj.ca.us> paul.b...@pcs.sj.ca.us (Paul Burnett) writes:

>M>An expostulation which I am fond of using is "Ye gods! (and little fishes")
>M>I am _sure_ that I didn't make this up.. and yet I can't find its origin
>
>I always assumed it used to be "The Gods!", with the thorn letter
>(_not_ "Y") mis-used, as usual. Sorta like "Oh God!".
>---

Thanks - and also for the suggestion that "little fishes" comes from the
Christ-sign of the fish.
However, _need_ the Ye be a corrupted Thorn-e? Couldn't it just be
a straightforward 2nd person pronoun? Until I find some sort of derivation,
I'm going to carry on saying it without at "th" sound...
So - any more ideas on the matter?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe

Robert Rosenberg

unread,
Nov 2, 1992, 10:02:52 AM11/2/92
to
According to Stuart Flexner (_I Hear America Talking_), the phrase "Ye
gods and little fishes" has been around since the 1820s as a mild
blasphemy. My dear mama uses it, as she does the slightly stronger
"Hell's Bells and little fishes." Still looking for the origin of the
little fishes, although it may be lost in the mists . . .
Message has been deleted

herb...@gmail.com

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 8:40:14 AM10/14/17
to
My Mother was from England, and any time she became flustered over dropping something, or catching my sister or myself making a mess, in the early 1940's...She would exclaim, "Hells Bells and Little Fishes!" So I also guess that "yes," it is a way for a gentle woman to curse!

Cheers
Doc Blake

Athel Cornish-Bowden

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 9:37:52 AM10/14/17
to
On 2017-10-14 12:36:13 +0000, herb...@gmail.com said:

> On Thursday, October 29, 1992 at 1:51:18 AM UTC+7, Microsoc wrote:
>> An expostulation which I am fond of using is "Ye gods! (and little fishes")
>> I am _sure_ that I didn't make this up.. and yet I can't find its origin
>> (I've tried OED, Brewer's, Fowler, ODQ etc). Any ideas?
>>
>> Marc Read

In the unlikely event that Marc Read is still hoping for an answer
after a quarter of a century, I can confirm that "Ye gods! and little
fishes" was a well known expression when I was youn.
>
> My Mother was from England, and any time she became flustered over
> dropping something, or catching my sister or myself making a mess...She
> would exclaim, "Hells Bells and Little Fishes!" So I also guess that
> "yes," it is a way for a gentle woman to curse!
>
> Cheers
> Doc Blake


--
athel

Richard Tobin

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 10:05:03 AM10/14/17
to
In article <f4ei9c...@mid.individual.net>,
Athel Cornish-Bowden <acor...@imm.cnrs.fr> wrote:

>In the unlikely event that Marc Read is still hoping for an answer
>after a quarter of a century, I can confirm that "Ye gods! and little
>fishes" was a well known expression when I was youn.

I remember it from books that already seemed out of date when I
was a child, such as Billy Bunter.

-- Richard

Sam Plusnet

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 6:12:13 PM10/14/17
to
There may come a time when the only way to keep some usenet groups in
being would be to resurrect & recycle post from the early 1990s.

--
Sam Plusnet

Jitze

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 6:58:46 PM10/14/17
to
A long time ago, as a youth in (the then the British Colony) Kenya, I became familiar with a Swahili exclamation "Hellisbellis", uttered not infrequently by our domestic staff (i.e the cook and the gardener). Only years later did I figure out that this must have been adopted from the English expression "Hells Bells". Swahili has taken on a lot of words through its history from foreign languages such a Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi and English - this is an example of the latter.

Reinhold {Rey} Aman

unread,
Oct 14, 2017, 7:38:30 PM10/14/17
to
Jitze wrote:
>
[Swahili exclamation "Hellisbellis"]
>
> Swahili has taken on a lot of words through its history from foreign
> languages such as Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi and English - this is an
> example of the latter.
^^^^^^
Hujambo, Jitze,

ObAUE: "Latter" refers only to the last of *two* things, nesspa?

And _ahsante sana_, I'm _mzima_.

Good to see you again!

--
~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~

Reinhold {Rey} Aman

unread,
Oct 15, 2017, 12:44:53 PM10/15/17
to
Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote to Jitze:
>
> And _ahsante sana_, I'm _mzima_.
^^^^^^^
Self-correction:

As I found out after posting, the official Swahili spelling is _asante_.
I learned the misspelled _ahsante_ from a cute Congolese Negress working
at a local Taco Bell, and I trusted her.

Let's face it: If you can't trust a cute Congolese Negress, whom *can*
you trust?

Athel Cornish-Bowden

unread,
Oct 15, 2017, 1:26:57 PM10/15/17
to
You can trust a real estate agent who tells you that there is a house
in excellent condition in Santa Rosa that you might want to buy
sight-unseen.


--
athel

Peter T. Daniels

unread,
Oct 15, 2017, 3:41:34 PM10/15/17
to
Especially a Negress.

Dingbat

unread,
Oct 15, 2017, 10:53:25 PM10/15/17
to
Would "cute Negress" be a compliment according to those who abhor
the N word? I once saw a documentary on the River Negro in South America.
They called it the "Black River", never using the N word even once.


Peter T. Daniels

unread,
Oct 15, 2017, 11:41:38 PM10/15/17
to
On Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 10:53:25 PM UTC-4, Dingbat wrote:
> On Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 10:14:53 PM UTC+5:30, someone disgusting wrote:

> > Let's face it: If you can't trust a cute Congolese Negress, whom *can*
> > you trust?
>
> Would "cute Negress" be a compliment according to those who abhor
> the N word?

No.

> I once saw a documentary on the River Negro in South America.

No such place. It's the Rio Negro.

Ken Blake

unread,
Oct 16, 2017, 1:27:55 PM10/16/17
to
I'm surprised that they didn't call it the "African-American River."
0 new messages