Gordon Bennett
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]For James Gordon Bennett, Jr., a New York newspaper proprietor and playboy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who became widely known for his extravagant lifestyle and shocking behaviour.[1] The first time the expression appears in print was in 1937, in James Curtis's novel, You’re in the Racket, Too.[2] The Oxford English Dictionary places the phrase in the 1890s as an alteration of gorblimey and again in reference to James Gordon Bennett Jr.[3]
The name was probably chosen because the first syllable of Gordon sounds like God in non-rhotic pronunciations, which would make this a minced oath.
Interjection
[edit]- (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, frustration.
Synonyms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html
- ^ [1], worldwidewords.org, 28 July 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gordon_bennett
Further reading
[edit]- The Chambers Dictionary, →ISBN
- Cassell's Dictionary of Word & Phrase Origins