Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a general excl. of intensification and affirmation.

c.1820		‘Sale of a Wife’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 40: And there she was, so help my bob, by public auction sold.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 13: ‘So help me bob’ is an oath to deceive the hearer, doubly; for a bob is but a shilling, and not a fit thing to swear by.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 197: [note] She didn’t run — no, so help me bob — she flied across the Forest.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 4 Nov. 6: ‘So help my tibby,’ observed Mr. Piper, with that emphatic enunciation that carried the truth.
1837		‘The Vicked Costermonger’ in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 188: The Costermonger cast upon her, / To mend the job, said, S’elp his bob, / He meant to treat the maid with honour.
1837		Ripley Transcript (MS) 30 Nov. 2/4: If anyone has squatted on my improvement and don’t absquattle beofre I get there, I will row you up Salt Creek [...] so help me, Moses!
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 27 Jan. 103: ‘So help me tibby, I will,’ said Bill Smith.
1840		R. Barham ‘Dead Drummer’ in Ingoldsby Legends II (1866) 317: His jaw-work would never, I’m sure, s’elp me Bob, / Have come for to go for to do sich a job!
1840		Flash Mirror 24: I didn’t vant to star this old ’ooman’s glaze [...] so help me Billy Arline.
1841		Sun. Flash (NY) 19 Sept. n.p.: ‘What do you know about this shawl?’ [...] ‘Nuthing, s’help me bob’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: ‘Will you stick to us?’ ‘So help me tibby, I will’.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 50: S’elp my snivery! [...] but old Fuzzle Fart has crapped his kicksies. [Ibid.] 51: So help my squirter, vot a rasping stink! [Ibid.] 59: S’elp me squeese! – send I may live! – hang me high up! if it arn’t a Wild-street shickster. [Ibid.] 68: She split on him [...] So-help my say so!
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Aug. 2/6: Well so help my Betty, if I did not say so.
1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: Mother Willit, of Gerrard Street, who could turn out forty dress mots; and, to crack her own wids, ‘So help her kidnies, she al’us turned her gals out with a clean a—e and a good tog’.
c.1850		‘Suppression of Crinoline’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 148: She’s courting a snob! so help my bob.
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Nov. 2/7: ’I am a Jew what travelled has from Poland to the Lane, / And s’elp mine heart, I vish the ’Chapel I could see again’.
1854		‘Lovely Albert’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 150: Chain up the Bear and make him stare, / And so help my Davy.
1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 36: I only gig that for the sake of business, so help me Susannah it aint worth it.
c.1860		‘Strike of the Journeyman Tailors’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 135: The masters they won’t alter the log, / The men say they shall, so help their bob.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 100: ‘S’help my bob,’ a street oath [...] Other words are used in street language for a similarly evasive purpose, i.e. cat, greens, tatur, &c, all equally profane and disgusting.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 117: So help me davy!
c.1865		‘That’s the Chisel!’ Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 35: The City’s laws, I did repeal, / I did, so ‘help me Bob!’.
1869		Sportsman (London) 7 Aug. 4/1: Notes on News [...] [A] certain press man, without having tasted a drop of liquor, ‘s’lpm’bob,’ arrived at his office a beastly state intoxication.
1878		‘’Arry on Politics’ Punch 11 May 205/2: I tell yer, old pardner, it’s proper; I feels quite a swell, s’ help me Bob.
1879		People’s Vindicator (Nachitoches, LA) 10 May 3/4: Mein Got in Heimel, if Your Honor don’t blease, I joust plead guilt to the charge, so help me Hannah Schmoker, by gracious.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Apr. 6/2: Ilma De Murksa pleads guilty to thirty-six, but swears, swelp’er, that’s all.
1883		press cutting in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era (1909) 228/1: The City coppers can’t leave the poor costers alone. It riles the coppers, s’elp me bob, to see a cove trying to get an honest living.
1884		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Jan. 7/2: ‘Can I put my leg up here,’ said a pretty and well-dressed young lady [...] ‘So help me gracious, no!’ screamed the alarmed Israelite.
1890		Sporting Times 8 Mar. 1/4: S’help me bob, why the blue-rock’s got no chance—they’re twice-ing him!
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 19 July 2/1: ‘S’help me banana she’ll half kill him’.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Mar. 4/1: Your Ladyship remembers— What you don’t? / Well s’help my duds.
1894		Mirror of Life 21 July 2/3: ‘Shelp me Moses, der horse vas vorth all I wants for him’.
1894		‘The Rocks Push Eisteddfod’ Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) in J. Murray Larrikins (1973) 87: The leader of the Rocks push cursed [...] ‘Now, gosh! S’help me crikey!’.
c.1895		Tabrar, Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] You can’t stop a girl from thinking 🎵 So help my bob, It's a jolly good job, / They can’t stop a girl from thinking!
1896		‘’Arry on African Affairs’ Punch 22 Feb. 90/2: Swelp me Jemimer, old man.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 15: I’ll make yer a good ’usband, Liza, swop me bob, I will. [Ibid.] 103: If she dares ter touch a ’air of your ’ead, swop me dicky I’ll give ’er sich a ’idin’ as she never ’ad before!
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 401: Swelp me, Bob! but this is something like!
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 54: A lord once – swelp me lucky I ain’t tellin’ yer no lie!
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Nov. Red Page/1: So help me cat! do you think I don’t know that?
1902		J. Masefield ‘One of the Bosun’s Yarns’ Salt-Water Ballads 22: I’ll smash yer skulls, so help me James, ’n’ let some wisdom in. [Ibid.] 23: ‘Drink this,’ he says, ’n’ I takes ’n’ drinks, ’n’ s’elp me, it was rum!
1902		Western Times 7 Feb. 3/4: ‘Swelp my cats,’ he exclaimed.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 141: Noa, s’elp me bob.
1906		Marvel 22 Dec. 633: Why, swap my bob, it’s a bloomin’ kid!
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 28: ‘S’elp me cat, I did,’ he said. [Ibid.] 128: S’elp me shicker, Twenty, you was the on’y pebble.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 21/2: Baub (Cockney 19 cent.) One of the commonest modes of evasively referring to the deity [...] e.g., ‘S’elp me Baub, I didn’t go for to do it.’.
1910		D. Stewart Tragedy of the White House in Illus. Police News 20 Aug. 12/3: ‘[S]o help my bob, he’s got a rare dose of the quids — did a burst (broke into a house) last night’.
1911		E. Dyson ‘Nicholas Don and the Meek Almira’ Benno and Some of the Push 31: ‘’Struth!’ he gasped. ‘I do like that. Swelp me Jimmy Gee, I do like that!’.
1914		Observer (Wellington) 21 Dec. 30/2: We was sunburnt skin and bony, / Was me and my old crony, / S’welp me bob!
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 10/5: Shelp me Aaron! / Vere as dem dere dimmuns gone?
1917		B.E.F. Times 8 Sept. in Hislop & Brown Wipers Times (2006) 220/1: And muttered grimly, ‘Swelp me, Bill.’.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Half A Man’ in Chisholm (1951) 105: It was a funny larf, so ’elp me bob: / Pair in the middle uv it come a sob.
1918		Concordia Dly Blade (KS) 3 June 2/2: But if that / Woman ever even / Looks like / Feeding slum or / Canned Willie, / So help me, / Hannah, / She and the / Six youngun’s / Can get a / New pa-paa.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 557: I’ll do him in, so help me fucking Christ!
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘A Holy War’ in Chisholm (1951) 79: Jist let me! Once! An’ after, s’elp me bob, / Never no more!
1925		Reading Times (PA) 12 Feb. 4/3: He’d razz heck outa me if I threw any of this cheap slang around. So help me Hannah, he would.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 33: ‘Swelp me!’ Hale said.
1929		Truth (Brisbane) 6 Oct. 14/3: Nine of ten witnesses, when taking the oath, say ‘Swelp me God!’ instead of the pure ‘So help me, God!’.
1932		I.L. Idriess Flynn of the Inland 275: ‘So help me bob!’ gazed a greyhead who had been loudest in prophecy of disaster, ‘I’m jiggered!’.
1935		Oakland Tribune (CA) 2 Jan. 5/3: ‘And, so help me Hannah, this is the truth’.
1935		Ted Yates This Is New York 31 May [synd.col.] She’s up on society doings in this man’s town. So h’ep me..
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 4:14: We couldn’t quite hear the words of the ceremony and some of the phrases sounded like ‘Gawd blimey’ and ‘swelp me bob’. We all joined in mock interpretations and there was much laughter.
1940		Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 8 Apr. 8/2: Well, so help me over the rabbit burrows, I’ll be...
1945		B. Mauldin in Lawton Constitution (OK) 11 Oct. 4/4: Division feels tghat way about Corps, Corps about Army, Army about Base Section and, so help me Hannah, Base Section feels that way about soldiers in the States.
1952		Ottawa Jrnl (Can.) 9 July 1/1: So help me Hannah, we have got to stop calling ourselves liars and cheats.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 268: Why, so help me ten men, what is this ’ere bloke’s bloomin’ moniker? [Ibid.] 315: Oiau knawk ’is bleet’n ’ed roi tawf – I will. Sewelp me bob!
1954		N.Y. Herald Trib. 1 Mar. 15/1: Recently, an ad agency executive — so help me Hannah — ended a conference with the words: ‘Well, the oars are in the water and we’re headed upstream’.
1963		A.E. Farrell Vengeance 140: S’welp me, Charlie, if that swab Yeatman’s ’urt so much as one little ’air of ’er ’ead, I’ll ...
1966		Akron Beacon Jrnl (OK) 16 Aug. 33/3: Faded Phrases: "Stick to your knittin’,’ ‘So help me Hannah,’ ‘Well, I’ll be switched’.
1967		Ottawa Jrnl (Can.) 12 Apr. 32/4: But, so help me Hannah, I have learned [etc].
1975		Idaho State Jrnl (ID) 30 June 18/6: A week later, so help me Hannah, if all that scum wasn’t gone.
1989		Town Talk (Alexandria, LA) 1 Jan. 45/2: I told everybody it wasn’t a payoff. That was a white lie. So help me Hannah.
1998		Logansport Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN) 18 Oct. 20/2: With all the space this world affords, I’m glad, so help me Hannah, / That I was born and raised in the best of all places, the Hoosier State of Indiana.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] ‘I’ll shiv ya,’ he screamed, wild-eyed. ‘So help me Christ, I’ll shiv you if you take another step’.