a fail-ya to communicate

[FC]

My Kentuck wife and father-in-law had no clue when I told them there were pollywogs in my koi pond. I was amazed! I looked it up, and yes, it is in the dictionary. (tadpole)

 

Also, my SD uncle said, "Crimony!" all the time. It wasn't in the dictionary, so I did a search. Anybody else hear the word? Is it just a prairie utterance?

CRIMONY

[Q] From Frank Palmeri in the USA: “I cannot find a definition for the word crimony anywhere. I’ve encountered it twice: once in a Far Side cartoon, another on the Garrison Keillor radio program Prairie Home Companion. Both times it seems to be uttered in exclamation, similar to Holy Cow!.”

[A] Most dictionaries that include it spell it criminy, or sometimes criminey. It’s certainly a mild exclamation or cry of astonishment, now very old-fashioned. It’s much weaker in force than when it was first used, back in the seventeenth century. The usual explanation is that it is a form of Christ, much like another somewhat dated mild expletive, crikey, which came along later; but it’s just possible that it’s a variant form of crime. It might be related in some way to Jiminy (as in Jiminy Cricket), which appeared at about the same time. This was possibly a modified form of Gemini, but was equally likely to be based on the Latin Jesu domine.

 

[tinkerfive]

Well I've certianly heard of ( phoneticly ) crime-a-knee.

 

Then there is 'Geezs crime-a-knee'.

 

Have you heard of crime-a-knitly?

[TLynn]

Yes, I've heard the word many a time before FC. Must be something that Texan's just don't know. Or else it's a more western type word as in up in the high west (not like where you live)? Don't know but it's fairly common or was when I was growing up anyway.

[Horsefly]

Tony,I've heard tadpoles being called pollywogs all my life,but did you know that out in West Texas,a pollywog is a mudcat.Roger Raglin is always saying on his hunting show "jiminey Christmas".Being raised in a Baptist church,if the door was unlocked,we were setting there,the first time I heard a yankee say "Jesus Christ" when something went wrong,well I was sure lightning was going to strike us and I kinda wanted to cry.I still can't say that but have gotten use to hearing it.God_ _amed it is just as bad,but I had heard and said it myself.It's just what your use too.Jerry

[fritz]

While we are talking about words not in the dictionary--what the hell is a "blog"?

 

Maybe it's in the latest Webster.

 

fritz

[jasonthehunted]

While we are talking about words not in the dictionary--what the hell is a "blog"?

 

Maybe it's in the latest Webster.

 

fritz

3345[/snapback]

 

weB LOG

 

learned that one last week

[Emul8]

I have always seen it spelled: Criminy.

 

That's how I looked it up and here's what I found, not that dissimilar to what you found, FC:

 

Criminy, which has also been spelled crimini or crimeny, is indeed a real word. The OED says it's 'a vulgar exclamation of astonishment: now somehwat archaic' and that it might be related to Italian crimine 'crime'.

 

Whatever its origin, criminy is one of those mild, old-fashioned euphemisms for "Christ," like crikey, cracky, cripes, Christmas, Christopher Columbus, and G. Rover Cripes. Criminy goes back at least to the 17th century: "O crimine! Who's yonder?" (Otway, 1681). In 1865 E.C. Clayton wrote in Cruel Fortune: "Criminy! – Raymond tight. I am astonished." That gives you some idea of the mildness of the oath by the middle of the 19th century! The situation was more serious in a 1700 quotation cited in Slang and its Analogues: "Murder'd my brother! O crimini!"

 

A similar euphemism is jiminy, as in Jiminy Criminy or Jiminy Cricket (which did not originate with Walt Disney), also meaning 'Jesus Christ'. Scholars speculate that jiminy, which has been spelled gemony, geeminy, jimini and gemini, derived through Low German from gemini, which was a corruption of the Latin Jesu Domine 'Jesus Lord'. This also goes back to the 17th century. Dryden in 1672 wrote "O Gemini! is it you, sir?" Byron played with the words in 1816: "Crimini, jimini! Did you ever hear such a nimminy pimminy Story as Leigh Hunt's Rimini?" And we find the following in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876): "'Oh, geeminy, it's him,' exclaimed both boys in a breath."

 

My Mother used to say criminy frequently, and many of my friends use those "old-fashioned euphemisms" as well. I just use proper cuss words myself, why try to pretty things up? LOL!