Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1811		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.
1845		J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 107: Oh! Jimminny Crimminny! what a cussed old fool!
1848		J. Mitchell Nantucketisms 40: By Jiminy Cricket, an exclamation of surprise [DA].
1850		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!
1851		‘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!
1853		W. Sketch & ‘Nelse’ The Down-Trodden 29/2: You shall have the shiners – by jiminey cripes, you shall.
1874		H.J. Whymark ‘Susan’s Sunday Out’ 🎵 Oh! Gimini crikey blow me tight! I always jump and shout.
1879		Princetown Union 24 Dec. 5/3: He does, by jiminy crickets!
1886		Thomas County Cat. 22 July 8/1: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ thought Jim.
1887		Century Mag. (N.Y.) Apr. 854/2: ‘Great Jiminy Crimany!’ Major Jimmy Bass would exclaim [DA].
1890		Hartlepool Mail 6 Aug. 3/4: Postmaster Van Cott mutters ‘Jiminy crips’.
1890		Star (Guernsey) 9 Aug. 4/1: Favourite ‘Swears’ of Eminent Americans [...] Van Cott finds emphasis in ‘Jemmy Cripps’.
1893		Sun (NY) 27Mar. 7/1: She’d been married twice before, Jiminy Christmas.
1893		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 21 May 6/4: By jiminy cricket, I have it in for you.
1894		‘The Horse Wrangler’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 338: Geemany crimany, how he lied!
1895		‘’Arry and the [...] Lady Cyclists’ Punch 15 June 285/3: Hadvanced Women? Jiminy whizz!
1897		Kipling Captains Courageous 118: Jiminy Christmas!
1898		F.H. Smith Caleb West 288: Jiminy-whiz, but it’s soapy out there! See ’er take that roller! Gosh! [DA].
1899		H. Lawson ‘Andy Page’s Rival’ in Roderick (1972) 363: Jimminy froth!! — It was me all the time.
1905		L. Pound ‘Dialect Speech in Nebraska’ in DN III:i 62: jimminy Christmas, or crickets, or criminy, interj. ‘Jimminy Christmas, it’s cold.’.
1906		Brownsville Daily Herald (TX) 6 Feb. 1/5: By jiminy crickets, I’m doggoned glad to see you’.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 143: jeeminy Chris’mas, interj. ‘Jeeminy Chris’mas! That hurts.’.
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 314: geeminetty, geeminy (crickets), geeminy Chris(t)mas [...] interj.
1912		A.G. Field Watch Yourself Go By 302: By yimminy crickitts, Uh! Uh!
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 75: jimmety whiskers! Ejaculation.
1920		E. O’Neill Anna Christie Act I: By yiminy crickens, Ay calabrate dat!
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 18: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ cried the young man at the end of the table [...] ‘Kin you beat it?’.
1927		C. Sandburg ‘The Tenderfoot’ in Amer. Songbag 275: Oh jimminy krissmas, how he lied!
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 26: By jiminy Jesus.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 33: ‘Jiminy crickets!’ she said to Sprout approvingly.
1942		F. Warnick Dialect of Garrett County, Maryland 7: Geeminy criminy, interj., mild imprecation [DA].
1944		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.’.
1955		Elvis Presley ‘Tweedle Dee’ 🎵 Tweedle tweedle tweedle dee / I’m as happy as can be. / Jimminy cricket, jimminy jack.
1957		Mad mag. July–Aug. 16: Jiminy Crickets, Mr Science!
1989		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).