Green’s Dictionary of Slang

golly! excl.

(mainly US/UK juv.) an extra-mild euph. for God!

1775		G. White Journals 21 Dec. (1931) 117: Gouleins (Gothic) salutatio: hence perhaps our word Golly, a sort of jolly kind of oath, or asseveration much in use among our carters, & lowest people.
1821		J.F. Cooper ‘The Spy’ Novel Newspaper (1845) I 176/1: ‘Golly!’ said Caesar, with a chuckle.
1828		R.M. Bird City Looking Glass II iii: Golly! Mr. Bolt is satirical.
1837		‘Plunder Creek’ Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 127: But golly! a governor he mighty smart for a white man.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 194: Gracious gaully how you talk!
1847		G.W. Harris ‘There’s Danger in Old Chairs!’ Weekly Nashville Union XIII Oct. in Inge (1967) 70: De great golly!
1850		W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: Golly! what a lie!
1851		M. Reid Scalp-Hunters II 65: Great Gollys! we will be froze in half the time. [Ibid.] 121: Gollies! was it winter?
1862		E.K. Wightman letter 8 Oct. in Longacre From Antietam to Fort Fisher (1985) 58: Golly! didn’t we grunt!
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 55: And she swears by Gole.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 186: ‘Can’t you get rid of these blacks? I want to be alone for a few minutes.’ ‘Golly, can’t I,’ he exclaimed.
1878		Leeds Mercury 1 Nov. 6/2: Golly! what a walloping you gave me!
1888		W.B. Churchward Blackbirding In The South Pacific 27: Golly! how that coward did run! [Ibid.] 106: My golly! he looked so very ferocious.
1895		Opelousas Courier (LA) 10 Aug.2/5: But by gollys you jest ought to come down and ride around [...] and see the crops me and Buck are growin’.
1898		Kipling ‘Stalky’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 20: Golly! how that heifer danced!
1903		N.Z. Observer 26 Dec. 19/1: by Golly, that was a good swop, they’ll take me for a blooming parson.
1907		Gem 16 Mar. 4: Brazil! Oh, golly!
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 May 4/8: We’ve emitted oaths, / ‘Bli’me,’ ‘Blank’ and ‘Golly’.
1910		Marvel 22 Jan. 21: ‘Golly, golly!’ murmured Pete.
1915		Argus (Melbourne) 10 June : By golly! wasn’t it hot’ Bullets and shrapnel were flying everywhere.
1917		Pittsburgh Press (PA) 14 June 12/5: ‘By gollies!’ said Gus.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 126: By gollies, it's done my heart good to see all these building fellers getting theirs.
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 3: And, golly! how she succeeded.
1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 86: Shin up a tree, no time to be los’, / ’Cause here’s de dawgs, and golly, de boss!
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 371: Golly, I don’t think so.
1934		Film Fun 8 Sept. 1: Oh Golly! Help me Olly.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 226: Golly, the old cove is a hard case – gets rummier every day.
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 6: God: gad, egad, cor, gawd, gosh, golly, gawblimey, gawstruth, good god, good grief, by ghost, goldarn it, for gorsake, for goshsake, my goodness, by gum.
1945		G. Fairlie Captain Bulldog Drummond 214: Golly — the whole bag with one shot!
1958		T. Capote Breakfast at Tiffany’s 91: But oh gee, golly goddamn [...] I did love him. The rat.
1962		E. Stephens Blow Negative! 207: ‘Golly Moses,’ the second boy said, swallowing hard.
1972		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Land of Black Gold 9: Golly, some bone.
1989		Beano Comic Library No. 176 29: Oh, my golly goshikins! What a mess!
1992		R. Barnard Fatal Attachment (1993) 171: ‘Golly,’ said Mary, impressed.
2000		Guardian G2 14 Jan. 18: Golly, as Miss Broke-Smith is apt to say, golly, this is good stuff.
2008		D. Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2009) 222: ‘Golly,’ I say. ‘Thanks’.

In derivatives

golly-gee (adj.)

(US) naively enthusiastiic.

2009

D. Lehr Fence 88: ‘I loved the job, and it was more than what I expected,’ he said. Mike could almost sound golly-gee about it.

In exclamations

by golly! (also by gaully! by goley! by gollies! by golliers! by gollikers! by jolly! ike ollies!)

a mild euph. for by God!

1737		Memoirs Soc. Grub Street II 278: [He] immediately declared that he never read any thing so good in his whole life : By golly (says he), h’as maul’d the parsons.
1811		N. Drake (ed.) Gleaner (London) I :20 148: [as 1737].
1829		Casket of Lit. 522/1: Meeting a friend, Sambo was asked if they looked like each other. ‘Yes, by Golly,’ replied he, ‘so much that you can't tell them apart’.
1833		A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth I 87: I’ll kill him if he ever stings me again – by golly!
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 207: By gaully! I’ll have a try at it this time.
1844		St Landry Whig (Opelousas, LA) 5 Sept. 1/5: By jolly! that was rather a critical predicament.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 15: My folks to hum air full ez good ez hisn be, by golly!
1851		‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 70: Poisoned, by golly!
1851		Lewiston Gaz. (PA) 14 Nov. 1/5: Look! hilloa! By Golliers, yonder’s a house!
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 194/1: By golly, if you don’t leave off, I’ll broke you over de jaw.
1864		A.F. Hill Our Boys 103: By jolly! I’d like to be onto that boat.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 595: The Yankee is peculiarly fertile in variations on the name of God, and gives a striking proof of his ingenuity in inventing new forms for the forbidden I swear. He has his by Gorram, by Goldam, and by Goshdang, by the side of the English oath by Golly.
1877		‘The Fashionable Coaley’ Laughing Songster 99: Some can’t forget their wulgar pranks, / When fortune comes by goley.
1880		Ottowa Free Trader (IL) 7 Feb. 8/1: By golly, Jule, I’s fined, but I cum mighty nigh gittin you into it, too. You must jes look out next time, suah, by golly.
1888		W.B. Churchward Blackbirding In The South Pacific 95: By golly, boss! I’ll do everything you want.
1890		Hartlepool Mail 6 Aug. 3/4: Ex-Senator Platt swears ‘By Caesar,’ and Mr Russell Sage ’By golly’.
1902		C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 142: I’ll show ye, by golly.
1911		G. Herriman ‘The Family Upstairs’ [comic strip] I’ll fix that reptile this time, by gollies.
1914		G. Herriman Dingbat Family 8 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] Ike ollies, it looked like it was all up the alley with the expedition for a minute, did n’t it?
1917		Van Loan ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ Old Man Curry 139: By golly, you ought to have your head examined.
1922		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 82: By golly! [...] What an idiot I am.
1929		J. Sale Tree Named John 45: By Gollies, folkses, ef y’all is skeered uv ’im, Ah ain’t.
1933		Intelligence Jrnl (Lancaster, PA) 18 Mar. 6/2: By gollies it tinkle, tinkle, tinkle seems to be getting worse.
1934		J.M. Cain Postman Always Rings Twice (1985) 71: By golly. Is swell.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 32: By golly! Where did you get that marvellous racing car, Pip?
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 378: I can ride over an’ git myself married, an’ by gollikers, ride back over here ’n’ find Grampaw’s mine.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 125: By golly we can keep them toeing the mark like we want ’ems.
1966		Sun. Times 5 June n.p.: There’s nothing alive in there [...] Or they’d be skedaddling. Yes there is, by golly.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 91: By golly, Les [...] I’ve got a champion watch-dog here.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 89: I told him I could hit an unshelled peanut from across the room, and, by golly, two or three times I did.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 31 Oct. 5: But by golly, being a 12-year-old sex kitten [...] should be punishable.
2000		Blackboiz for Other Boiz 🌐 3 Jan. I like people and, by golly, they tend to like me back.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 258: ‘Jeepers creepers and howdy doodie old chap by golly what a swell hole’.