Please, God, Blind Me

[00:00] Alright guys, I think it's time now to move to an undegoogable. It's been a little while Coalson yeah
[00:10] you know you you guys
[00:13] decided to to bring the coast to you and
[00:16] a
[00:18] Couple a couple weeks ago, and I feel like that messed up our rotation
[00:24] I'm ready to answer some questions for you
[00:42] Super excited told us we had to
[00:46] We signed up for it in the end. It's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you
[00:54] What do you got for us this week Coalson? How can we help you?
[00:59] so this one came up fairly recently and
[01:04] I'm I I have no answer
[01:07] So that's why I come to you guys
[01:10] the phrase like the dickens
[01:13] Like the dickens are you familiar with the the phrase Joey? I mean, I guess I think so
[01:20] I always thought it was sort of like
[01:23] Like you might say oh that hurt like the dickens. I just mean it hurt a lot. Yeah, I don't think yeah
[01:27] It's gonna reach is like fire dickens. Yeah
[01:31] It was an ample fire, right?
[01:34] So like you wouldn't you wouldn't
[01:38] You know be a tough guy and say oh no big deal. It just hurt like the dickens
[01:45] You know, that's you. It would be something that was that hurt a fair amount
[01:49] So yeah, that's how I take it to be sort of something. Yeah, it's a modifier
[01:55] To show that something is, you know on the high end
[01:59] Yeah, that's how you understand it to Harper. Yeah. Yeah work like the dickens to get the job done. Mm-hmm
[02:08] I
[02:10] My only thought originally so I have it, you know
[02:12] I try not to put too much thought into this but I of course knew the phrase beforehand before asking you guys
[02:18] My only thought was is this related to Charles dickens?
[02:23] It's the only dickens. I know. Yeah, I mean same here. That's
[02:27] the first thing I could think of was was
[02:31] Chuck D. We call him but yeah
[02:34] The other check and and and so here's here's my my going theory
[02:39] It's not a good theory and I'm willing for it to be broken down very quickly
[02:42] the
[02:45] dickens was prolific and
[02:50] Published in newspapers and was paid by the word
[02:53] And so maybe he amplified language, maybe he exaggerated or extended
[03:00] Sentences and paragraphs and so if something was wrote like the dickens if you wrote like dickens you would bigger or amplified
[03:10] So maybe start with you. He wrote like dickens
[03:14] and
[03:15] So sort of morphed into something else. I guess I'd always thought that this was just sort of a straight-up substitution for devil
[03:22] Work like the devil hurt like the devil. I don't know why
[03:29] Hmm you would substitute the death
[03:31] I mean, maybe it just came from a time that was so religious where even invoking the name of the devil was like
[03:37] Yeah, a superstition too far
[03:40] That was the thing that came first to my mind was yeah, like maybe Puritans that
[03:45] You know, but I don't even think you have to go that far. I mean, you know, like we're constantly
[03:52] Softening phrases like that, right?
[03:54] from damn to darn and then darn did I
[03:58] Mean, I don't know when that happened. Yeah, I assume a while ago cuz I'll give a fuck. I
[04:04] I guess it was before it was a black mamba. Now. It's the maple mamba
[04:15] But you know, you know phrases in polite company, maybe you wouldn't say the devil that's you know, you'd say
[04:22] Something else. Yeah. I mean I had also often thought of Charles Dickens in this way
[04:27] but I couldn't think of any of his writings that you know, or the devil played a
[04:33] Prominent role and why that substitution would would would take place sense. Yeah
[04:38] Yeah
[04:41] Sort of but I mean we we do have other examples of of the softening things that start with the same letter, right?
[04:47] Yeah, you go shit to shoot and so we're going devil to
[04:53] Dickens, you know, I don't know
[04:55] Are there any other non Charles Dickens?
[04:58] Dickens that we know. Yeah, Dickens a box
[05:22] German Saturday live scale. Yeah, I was gonna say I can't wait to see how you spell that cuz yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the German way
[05:32] Yeah, sorry, mom
[05:39] Blame Justin Timberlake, it's not our fault
[05:45] We've got any other ideas, I mean, are there any other things that are
[05:51] Dickens yeah, not not even I was Dickens named after the devil. Mm-hmm. I think he's a hell spawn
[06:01] Hmm
[06:06] Yeah, no, I don't I don't know any other phrases that use Dickens as a replacement for other things
[06:13] It's always like the Dickens. Yeah. Yeah, so so you like this as contemporaneous with Charles Dickens, so that would be
[06:24] 1840s 50s somewhere. Yeah. Yeah and
[06:27] English
[06:30] This is a London phrase. Okay
[06:34] and and I think that I do agree with you though that it was a softening for the devil and
[06:41] they just and
[06:44] Dickens was known for that stuff and they just kind of it all meshed together
[06:48] appeared in time
[06:49] Well, yeah, I mean I get that it's just odd to me to use that phrase like
[06:57] That to use somebody's name, you know, it's like oh it hurt like the Coalson
[07:05] Not, you know
[07:08] Somebody's name right, but like what if it was, you know
[07:14] Your last name was Difflin, you know, it hurt like the Difflin or the Dunbar
[07:19] You know like because it was with a D like the devil
[07:23] Maybe yeah, I don't hurt like the Duff beer
[07:28] Okay
[07:30] Joey I think I'm gonna have to piggyback on you. I I I would guess that it came from an earlier more puritanical time
[07:38] Okay
[07:39] maybe
[07:40] Yeah, maybe late 1600 early 1700 something like that and some
[07:48] Conservative religious culties sort of place. Do you think it's
[07:53] Uniquely American or do you think it's
[07:56] a
[07:58] European
[07:59] It just feels European doesn't it? Yeah, it feels awful
[08:03] Englishy like I want to go puritans, but it just feels so darn British. Yeah
[08:07] But maybe that's just because of my association with Charles D
[08:11] And also they don't really care about cursing as much as we do right and everything's bloody over there
[08:16] Yeah, good call and like there's all their TV shows curse stuff, right?
[08:21] And they I don't know. I mean, they were pretty good at being puritanical in their time
[08:27] Okay, fair enough. All right, so you're going 1600s
[08:35] Joey, what are you thinking? That's I mean that seems like a good
[08:39] Good range. Okay, so
[08:42] So if we were to combine all of our ideas
[08:47] It would be invented in the 1600s and then and then made popular by
[08:55] popularized by tickets Charles because he loved people using his name and the sacrilegious way
[09:02] Feels very Dickensian actually
[09:05] There's no way I was gonna get through this without using Dickensian and some yeah, I appreciate you doing that
[09:10] I'm here for you, but that's pretty sexy
[09:14] We got any other guesses we should look it up that's all I got okay, I just don't know any other Dickens is
[09:22] It's strange that none of us took Shakespeare on this
[09:25] Oh
[09:27] Why was it Shakespeare? I don't know. It's just it seems like it
[09:34] Anything from that time period we should probably immediately man
[09:37] Yeah, phrase finder is saying
[09:41] Shakespeare use Dickens in the Mary wives of Windsor
[09:44] 1600 I cannot tell what the Dickens his name is my husband
[09:50] Had him of yeah, and it does appear to be a substitution for the devil
[09:56] Yeah, possibly via devil kids
[10:00] That's a cute name for the devil
[10:07] Well a devil can is this small devil or imp yeah, it's a cute it's a cute devil devil
[10:14] Devilkin sounds like something that I would collect as a like some sort of munchkin. It's known as a minced oath
[10:21] Yeah, well, it's a minced oath. It's a euphemistic euphemistic phrase to
[10:27] to avoid swearing such as
[10:30] Freaking heck. Oh
[10:32] Sure gadzooks or fracking. Oh
[10:40] You can say cheese and rice
[10:42] Shut the front door. Yeah
[10:46] Yeah, it's a
[10:47] We were corrected as the
[10:50] General intensifier
[10:52] Just a euphemism for the devil and used in Shakespeare. Mary wives of Windsor. Good lord. Well, we were half there
[10:58] You guys were half there. No, Charles dance. How do we yeah, I'm kind of because Shakespeare is one of the
[11:06] It's one of the ones
[11:09] That we always
[11:10] You know, it's one of the few. Yeah sort of tenants of the of the under of the game. Yeah
[11:17] Yeah, so there's falconry. There's
[11:20] You know, we're certainly sailing horse racing. Yeah
[11:24] Pliny the elder Shakespeare pliny the elder and Shakespeare and that's it. Yeah, that's all things come from those things seafaring
[11:31] Did you mention that? Yeah. Yeah seafaring
[11:34] Those are those it's that's those five things everything comes from those but yeah anything around 1600 or British for that matter
[11:40] We should have been on seafaring should have been a Shakespeare
[11:43] Gotta be one. Yeah dickens is some part of a sail
[11:48] It's a rope. It's a pulley. We gotta pull this dickens
[12:02] Pull harder on the dickens
[12:06] Harper also on that on that
[12:09] Minced oaths list
[12:12] Down near the bottom is Sacre bleu
[12:15] Which apparently is a minced oath for saying did do which is
[12:20] God's blood which is apparently as something you should not be saying. Mm-hmm
[12:25] God's hook is like God's hook. This is I guess I'm a weird swearing back in the day
[12:33] Zounds is God's wounds. Why would you say that because of this cuz the crucifixion thing
[12:40] Very oh, okay. Well, there's the yeah very evil to crucify someone. Yeah
[12:49] And then apparently you get in trouble for talking about it so careful Joey
[12:56] Gore blimey means God blind to me
[12:59] Really?
[13:01] Yeah, that's what it seems like a weird way to curse yourself. Why would you want to say that?
[13:06] That's what I'm saying. I don't understand a bunch of these some of them
[13:09] Maybe maybe that was just for people for kids who walked in on their parents
[13:15] Very specific, please please God
[13:20] But then that'd be the last thing you ever saw which oh man, yeah
[13:26] Apparently drat is for God rotted. I don't know man
[13:33] Well, well done. As always I'm glad
[13:36] to ask my smart friends
[13:40] Look we got better at cursing
[13:43] As we totally weft on this one
[13:46] Well, I blame Jason cuz he's not here
[13:49] Yeah, he would have had Shakespeare. He would have said Shakespeare immediately. He's yelling. He's yelling at his phone right now
[13:59] And I get it you're right man like this that's on us that's on us