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Etymology Journal ยท S

Sweet fancy Moses!

Meaning

An exclamation used to express surprise, shock, or exasperation. It is a way to swear without actually using offensive language.

Exasperated, silly

Used in a sentence

  • Sweet fancy Moses, look at the size of that spider!
  • Sweet fancy Moses, I nearly dropped the wedding cake.
  • The gas bill was four hundred dollars, sweet fancy Moses!

The backstory

It is a sanitized minced oath. It gained significant popularity in pop culture after being used by Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, though it existed in regional dialects before that.

Heard in

Nationwide

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