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,
A reader in British Columbia
"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 a 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.
© 2007 William Gordon Casselman
