French-Canadian Word Question to All & Sundry:

A visitor emails this question, “Has anyone heard of ‘bingajohns’? The spelling is approximate. Apparently it's like fried bread. My family is Métis, originally from Québec.”

Whoever knows this word and its proper spelling and origin, please email me at wordguy@shaw.ca

 

May 13, 2004

Subject: Eh?

Hi Bill:

 

How are you? I've been meaning to send a note about your web article on the reason Canadians say EH! My theory, which you blew all to hell!, was that we as Canadians can be lazy listeners eh!...... huh!... ya know what I mean... you listenin? Kind of along those lines.

I gave one of your books to a friend of mine. He is full of one liners so I expect to hear a few more new ones which I'll send along to you. Best of luck.

Sincerely,

Lance Haines

Nanaimo, BC

 

 

REVISIT MY ARTICLE ON "EH?"

 

        

 

        April 29, 2004

        From: Y. L. Strasdine
        Gabriola Island, British Columbia

Dear Bill:

Do you know where the saying, 'Oh for the love of Mike' comes from? Someone I know remembers it as a child in Edmonton in the Thirties, where he thought it was related to Mike's Newsstand (The Sponsor of a Boys' Band in Edmonton for decades and the local bookie). I remember hearing it when I came to Canada in the Fifties in either Toronto or Vancouver.

Enjoy your books!
Cheers,
Y.L.S.

"For the love of Mike"

 

In word study this kind of phrase is called a minced oath.

To mince your words means 'to choose words so as not to offend anyone.'

This particular expression began as a substitute for an outcry of surprise or anger, namely, "for the love of God!" But the speaker decided that using God's name in this way was blasphemous and therefore decided to substitute something else for the word God.

In this case, St. Michael.

The phrase began as "for the love of Michael."

It was initially perhaps an Irish soldier's mild curse. St. Michael is the patron saint of warriors and soldiers and he looks after them on the battlefield. St. Michael the Archangel is the chief of the heavenly host, the celestial army that defends the Church. He fights the rebel angels and the dragon of Revelations. He is patron saint of knights and of all trades allied to the production of weapons and scales.

Indeed, the word archangel in its original Greek means literally 'chief' (Greek, arkhos) + 'angel' (Greek, aggelos literally 'messenger' of God). In later ecclesiastical Greek the two roots meld to form arkhaggelos 'angel of the highest order.'

Note that in the currently accepted transliteration of ancient Greek the digraph gg stands for a nasalized syllable, so that aggelos would be pronounced approximately like anglos with a hard g. In precise and fussy enunciation the e would be sounded too.

The expression "for the love of Mike" is not Canadian and is probably 600 to 800 years old!

Believe me, it did NOT originate at Mike the Bookie's Newsstand in Edmonton. I don't believe the newsstand would have been operating 600 years ago. That would make Mike one hell of an old bookie. I mean, Jeepers Creepers, Shakespeare himself could have been into Mike for a couple of Gs.

A few more examples of "minced oaths" will make clear the kind of linguistic substitution taking place here. "Jeepers Creepers!" is a minced version of "Jesus Christ!" Other minced versions of Jesus' name include "Jiminy Cricket!" Yes, the Walt Disney animators were drew the little character in Pinocchio, the cricket who sings "When You Wish upon a Star," were using a bit of an in-joke curse when they named the character. Or perhaps they were not aware of the origin of the character's name? They certainly did not invent it in the 1930s or 1940s since "Jiminy Cricket!" as a minced oath is in print in the United States by 1918.

Other kinds of minced oaths evolved too. In Shakespeare's time, if you smashed a hammer into your thumb, you might cry out, "God's wounds!." This could be minced as "Zounds!" That oath became quite popular among the Elizabethans and appears in several Shakespearean plays.

If anyone has other cogent origins of the phrase "for the love of Mike," please email them to me and I'll share them with visitors.

Thanks!

Bill Casselman

This view of the Archangel Michael in Italian High Renaissance pose depicts him subduing Satan in a 1518 painting by Raffaello Sanzi called Raphael  (1483-1520).

 

Here is a typical prayer to Saint Michael in his traditional role as defensor militis, 'protector of the soldier.'

 

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray. O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world for ruin of souls. Amen.