Jerusalem! excl.
used in a variety of mild oaths; euph. for Jesus! excl.
Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 8 Aug. 276/2: By Jerusalem! | ||
Stray Subjects (1848) 69: Jerusalem! that’s great! | ||
Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 186: Oh, Jerusalem! | ||
Broadway Belle (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: Such a dog! Jerusalem save us! | ||
Bill Arp 136: I hate the whole Yanky nation. Jerusalem! how my blood biles! | ||
Unsentimental Journeys 222: Jerooslem, Tomkins! there’s a pair of balmorals! | ||
First Fam’lies in the Sierras 60: Somebody [...] said ‘Jerusalem!’. | ||
Poganuc People 131: ‘Je-ru-salem,’ he exclaimed, ‘ef you hain’t ben and done it!’. | ||
London Life 7 June 6/2: [She] despatches them reeling and stealing to their respective domiciles, to awake in the morning with, " Oh I Jerusalem!" heads splitting with drink, excitement, and sentiment. | ||
in Army Letters from An Officer’s Wife (1909) 346: The man had opened his eyes wide, and almost gasped ‘Gee-rew-s’lum!’— then utterly collapsed. | ||
Mr Barnes of N.Y. 56: ‘Je-rue-sa-lem!’ [...] This last comes from a cattle king from Kansas. | ||
Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 4/4: By Jerusalem, they’ll get the blues shortly. | ||
🎵 Oh Jerusalem / I never was in such a plight before. | [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Wrong Man||
Coconino Sun (AZ) 14 Jan. 3/2: Geerusalem! | ||
Sporting Times 7 Apr. 1/1: [They] are paying over Olympia! Jerusalem! | ||
Magnet 29 Feb. 16: Jerusalem! We’ll get no grub! | ||
Harvester 394: ‘Jerusalem!’ said Doctor Carey rising stiffly. | ||
Madame Prince 193: Je-rusalem, but a natty piece of goods. | ||
(con. 1917–18) Wings (1928) 62: Geeroosalem, lookit ’at sojer boy. | ||
Fight Stories July 🌐 Gerusha! And only a few months ago me and the Sailor [...] had done everything but knife each other in a twenty-round draw. | ‘Pit of the Serpent’||
Bully Hayes 4: ‘Jee-rusalem!’ burst out Captain Si. | ||
(con. 1919) USA (1966) 647: Jeerusalem, it makes me feel good to hear you, you old bum. | Nineteen Nineteen in||
Western Champion (Qld) 12 Dec. 3/2: You orter heard the charge next morning! Gee-roo-salem! | ||
Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 6: Jesus: Jeez, jeewizz, gee, jiminy, by Jove, by George, by jingo, by jingies, jericho, jerusalem. [added in pencil: Jiminy Cricket. | ||
Pleasures of Helen 18: A drop of icy champagne slid off Helen’s glass [...] down between her breasts, down, down, down. . . . ‘JEE-rusalem!’ she gasped. |
In exclamations
euph. for Jesus! excl.
Phenomena in Crime 36: ‘Jeerusalem artichokes!’ he gasped. |
(US) a mild oath.
City Crimes (2013) 285: Vake up, or, by de big Jerusalem Cricket I’m bound to dump yer all off de stools! | ||
Burnley Exp. 19 Feb. 3/5: [from Hartford Times] He dashed them upon the floor and jumped up and down on them [...] repeating the words, ‘Thunder and gimlets, cool enough’ — ‘Jerusalem crickets, cool enough’ — ‘By the jumping Jehosiphat, cool enough’. | ||
Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 25 Nov. 2/4: That unhappy man [...] exclaimed in amazement, ‘Great Jerusalem crickets’. | ||
DN III:i 62: Jerusalem, Jerusalem crickets, Jerusalem June-bugs. interj. ‘Jerusalem June-bugs! You’ll never not get me to believe that.’. | ‘Dialect Speech in Nebraska’ in||
DN III:iv 324: Jerusalem crickets, interj. | ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in