You think we’re starting to digress, but we’re not. Suddenly, gee seems like an expression in place of “Jesus” rather than “God,” which of course would seem obvious, phonetically speaking. Gee whiz - a near caricature of 1950s juvenile expressions - first appeared in an 1883 edition of “The Warren Ledger,” a Pennsylvania newspaper, which may have taken from Cody and Arlington’s “Life on the Border” (1876): “Gee-wees!…I’ll bet one hundred dollars on that hand!” Others date it to 1871, but it hardly matters at this point because it’s all probably an evolution of jeez from the 1830s. Gee, on its own, is a bit harder to pin down.
Gosh came a little bit later, around 1757, probably a derivation of “by gosse” from Nicholas Udall’s comic play “Ralph Roister Doister.” You’re already familiar with some related wordplay: Golly dates back to 1743 England, according to some sources. Some sources suggest children in 18 th and 19 th century England were encouraged to use “g” words in place of God, but the tradition of avoiding sacred words with substitutions goes back further, to old Hebraic and Middle English forms. Gee might, then, stand in place of “God,” lest speakers use the lord’s name in vain. In any case, gee willikers is a minced oath, a euphemistic expression used in place of something more hideously offensive. (And I know what you’re thinking, but no, surprisingly none of this is related to the gee-haw whammy diddle.) Still, gee whillikers is also permitted and arguably closest to the origin, though golly gee willikers may have something to say about that. But gee willickers is also occasionally acceptable. Gee willikers seems to be the most proper. The proper spelling is… well, there isn’t a proper spelling. And just as any spell checking goes, you start with a Google search and end with excerpts from Archibald Henderson’s 1911 biography on Mark Twain, curiously titled “Mark Twain.”īut first things first, Mark Twain later. We agreed to spell check the word and get back to each other.
GEE WILLIKERS MEANING HOW TO
More to the point, it turns out that I didn’t know how to spell geewillickers either, so the score was never actually evened. So consider us even.” That’s not really an equitable tit for tat, but Claire is nothing if not generous. Sorry.”Ĭlaire took the offense in stride: “I didn’t know that’s how you spelled geewillickers. I didn’t even bother to check schedules when I sent that around. OK, they’re usually not work-related.ĭuring a recent a chat around the DMS blog office, someone (me) acknowledged his (my) scheduling mistake in Outlook Calendar by saying, “Oh Em Geewillickers, Claire (our blog editor). Watercoolering highlights the things - not always work-related - that we’re talking about around the office. “OMG! The Mississippi is my favorite,” said Mark Twain.
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