jiminy
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
An alteration of earlier Gemini (“an expression of mild surprise or annoyance”); see there for more.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /d͡ʒɪməni/
Interjection
jiminy
- (dated) An expression of mild surprise or annoyance.
- 1917, Elaine Sterne, The Road of Ambition, New York, N.Y.: Britton Publishing Company, page 120:
- He sat up with a jerk. "Holy Jiminy! How did you figure all that out?"
- 1956, Joe Evans Brown, Laughter Is a Wonderful Thing, New York, N.Y.: A. S. Barnes and Company, page 77:
- "Jimminy!" I thought. "Now I can do my Christmas shopping just like anybody." I dashed out along the town's main street to look at the glowing store windows and ponder what to buy.
- 1968, Peter Dickinson, The Glass-Sided Ant's Nest, New York, N.Y., Evanston, I.L.: Harper & Row, Publishers, page 23:
- A hand touched her arm, in the crook of the bare flesh inside the elbow. Jiminy, how quietly they could all move! She looked sideways and up, through the dark.
Usage notes
- May also be used to indicate seriousness when preceded by "I wish to" or "I swear to".
Derived terms
Further reading
- “jiminy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “jiminy”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “Jiminy, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
