Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jiminy cricket! excl.

also geemany crimany! geeminy criminy! gemini crack! jeminy cripps!, jiminy crickets! ...crikey! ...criminy! ...cripes! ... crips! ...whiz! jimmety whiskers! jimminny crimminny! jimminy Christmas! ...froth!
[? Ger. interj. jemine, oh dear!, gracious! = Lat. Jesu domine; cricket = euph. for Christ]

(orig. US) a euph. for Jesus! excl.

[UK]Norfolk Chron. 20 July 4/3: Definitions of words, phrases, etc. which Dr Johnson and other learned lexicographers have thought beneath their notice [...] jeminy-creminy, An emasculate obstentation.
[UK]Age (London) 6 Jan. 6/2: ‘Gemini Crack! what a big un for an infant!’.
[US]J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 107: Oh! Jimminny Crimminny! what a cussed old fool!
J. Mitchell Nantucketisms 40: By Jiminy Cricket, an exclamation of surprise [DA].
[US]W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: Jeemeny, criminy! – if you’d only bin whar I was!
[US] ‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 67: Jeeminy, criminy! Jest to see him, one uv them ar great big rusty rattlesnakes!
[US]W. Sketch & ‘Nelse’ The Down-Trodden 29/2: You shall have the shiners – by jiminey cripes, you shall.
[UK]H.J. Whymark ‘Susan’s Sunday Out’ 🎵 Oh! Gimini crikey blow me tight! I always jump and shout.
Princetown Union 24 Dec. 5/3: He does, by jiminy crickets!
[US]Thomas County Cat. 22 July 8/1: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ thought Jim.
Century Mag. (N.Y.) Apr. 854/2: ‘Great Jiminy Crimany!’ Major Jimmy Bass would exclaim [DA].
[UK]Hartlepool Mail 6 Aug. 3/4: Postmaster Van Cott mutters ‘Jiminy crips’.
[UK]Star (Guernsey) 9 Aug. 4/1: Favourite ‘Swears’ of Eminent Americans [...] Van Cott finds emphasis in ‘Jemmy Cripps’.
[US]Sun (NY) 27Mar. 7/1: She’d been married twice before, Jiminy Christmas.
[US]Salt Lake Herald (UT) 21 May 6/4: By jiminy cricket, I have it in for you.
[US] ‘The Horse Wrangler’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 338: Geemany crimany, how he lied!
[UK] ‘’Arry and the [...] Lady Cyclists’ Punch 15 June 285/3: Hadvanced Women? Jiminy whizz!
[UK]Kipling Captains Courageous 118: Jiminy Christmas!
F.H. Smith Caleb West 288: Jiminy-whiz, but it’s soapy out there! See ’er take that roller! Gosh! [DA].
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Andy Page’s Rival’ in Roderick (1972) 363: Jimminy froth!! — It was me all the time.
[US]L. Pound ‘Dialect Speech in Nebraska’ in DN III:i 62: jimminy Christmas, or crickets, or criminy, interj. ‘Jimminy Christmas, it’s cold.’.
[US]Brownsville Daily Herald (TX) 6 Feb. 1/5: By jiminy crickets, I’m doggoned glad to see you’.
[US]J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 143: jeeminy Chris’mas, interj. ‘Jeeminy Chris’mas! That hurts.’.
[US]L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 314: geeminetty, geeminy (crickets), geeminy Chris(t)mas [...] interj.
[US]A.G. Field Watch Yourself Go By 302: By yimminy crickitts, Uh! Uh!
[US]G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 75: jimmety whiskers! Ejaculation.
[US]E. O’Neill Anna Christie Act I: By yiminy crickens, Ay calabrate dat!
[US]Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 18: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ cried the young man at the end of the table [...] ‘Kin you beat it?’.
[US]C. Sandburg ‘The Tenderfoot’ in Amer. Songbag 275: Oh jimminy krissmas, how he lied!
[UK]R. Carr Rampant Age 26: By jiminy Jesus.
[US]J. Spenser Limey 33: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ she said to Sprout approvingly.
F. Warnick Dialect of Garrett County, Maryland 7: Geeminy criminy, interj., mild imprecation [DA].
[Aus]S .J. Baker 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].
[UK]J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 187: ‘Jee-minny Christy,’ I said. ‘What you think I’ve been doing all my life – playing tiddly winks.’.
[US]Elvis Presley ‘Tweedle Dee’ 🎵 Tweedle tweedle tweedle dee / I’m as happy as can be. / Jimminy cricket, jimminy jack.
[US]Mad mag. July–Aug. 16: Jiminy Crickets, Mr Science!
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 220: The variety of euphemisms that have been devised in place of it (including, among others, gee, gee whillikers, jeepers creepers, Jeez, Jiminy Christmas, Jiminy Cricket, and jingo).
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 258: ‘[G]ee whiz and Jiminy Crickets, what a terrific shot, eh?’.