Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 References  














Odds bodkins







Add links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Odds bodkins is an archaic English minced oath of the Middle Ages and later.

Odds bodkins is generally considered to probably be a euphemism for "God's body"[1] (or possibly "God's dear body"),[2] although "God's dagger"[2] or "God's [crucifixion] nails"[3] has also been suggested as a possible source, as "bodkin" was current in the Middle Ages as a term for many small sharp implements: bodkin point, a narrow armor-piercing arrowhead; bodkin needle; dagger,[4] stilleto or "nail dagger";[5]anawl-like leather-punching device;[1] and a slim pointed multiple-use women's accessory[6] (although this use may have come later).

A bodkin arrowhead

Hamlet uses the term to describe a dagger in his "To be, or not to be" soliloquy c. 1599), in which he says "When he himself might his quietus [death] make, with a bare bodkin?"[7] Chaucer used the word "boidekin" in this sense in The Canterbury Tales ("But if he wolde be slain of Simkin, with panade, or with knif or boidekin...",[8] for example, as did some other writers of around this time.[9]

There are many variants of spelling and form, such as ods bodikin, odsbodikins, odds bud, oddsbud, gadsbodikins,adsbud, 'sbodikins, and others.[3]

Henry Fielding was an early user of the oath in print, as his 1734 play Don Quixote in England puts "odsbodlikins" in the Don's mouth.

The etymology of "bodkin" is not known. It may be from Old French "bois de cuing", as Old French coign meant wedge, or peak of a helmet.[9] Or it may be from Gaelic "biodag", the etymology of which is not known. John Minsheu (1671) suggested that it might be of Dutch origin. One known instance of "bidowe" occurred in Piers Plowman where it probably meant "dagger" and could possibly be related. Anglo-French beitequin (a small beetle) and many other possibilities have been mooted by various etymologists over the centuries. And bodkin itself has had a few other obscure and obsolete meanings.[10]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "odds bodkins". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ a b "Bodkins and bodkin - Same word different context?". Stack Exchange. 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ a b "ods bodikins". Wiktionary. Retrieved September 19, 2023. [better source needed]
  • ^ "bodkin". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ "SOE Bodkin or Nail Dagger". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ Bethany Groff Dorau (September 2, 2022). "Bodkins are a Girl's Best Friend". Museum of Old Newbury. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ William Shakespeare (c. 1599). "To Be Or Not To Be' Soliloquy". Hamlet. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey (2005). Jill Mann (ed.). The Canterbury Tales. Penguin Classics (original-spelling Middle English ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-0140422344. Retrieved September 19, 2023. lines 3959-3960
  • ^ a b "boidekin n." Middle English Dictionary. University of Michigan. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  • ^ Anatoly Liberman (October 7, 2015). "Bare bodkins and sparsely clothed buttinskis, or, speaking daggers but using none". OUPblog. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 19, 2023.

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odds_bodkins&oldid=1227625986"

    Categories: 
    British English idioms
    Euphemisms
    Hidden categories: 
    All articles lacking reliable references
    Articles lacking reliable references from September 2023
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
     



    This page was last edited on 6 June 2024, at 21:39 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki