Possible addition to the cases of “extra -S” listed in this earlier posting: the -S on exclamations like yipes, yikes, gee whillikers, and possibly some others.
The /z/ in zounds represents a historical plural (in wounds), though only students of language appreciate that these days.
The /s/ in cripes probably reflects that segment in Christ, but again that might not be appreciated by people who use the expression.
Then there’s the final element of the testicular exclamations balls, bollocks, and nuts: a plural marker, historically, but why did these forms get chosen for this purpose?
Further nominations are welcomed.
May 26, 2011 at 8:52 am |
Hells no!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hells%20no
May 26, 2011 at 9:36 am |
Nice one, with real attestations, like this one:
May 26, 2011 at 11:49 am |
And, conversely, hells yeah!
May 26, 2011 at 9:25 am |
rats
oops (< upsidaisy?)
(aw-)shucks (< shucks = 'worthless things')
gadzooks (< God's hooks?)
bejabbers (< by Jesus)
jeepers (< Jesus)
yoicks (< hoik < hike)
Cheers!
May 26, 2011 at 9:37 am |
Wonderful (especially “Cheers!” at the end).
May 26, 2011 at 9:49 am |
I’m not sure whether “yummers” falls into this class or 5.2 Oxford –er + s
May 26, 2011 at 10:20 am |
Probably 5.2, since it serves primarily as an (approving) adjective, which can then stand on its own as an exclamation (as in Beautiful!).
May 26, 2011 at 11:07 am |
Irish English colloquial pronunciation of jeepers gives japers and bejapers, and there’s also jakers. The first of these is especially common in my experience.
Hells no reminded me of Hell’s bells, of which there’s a long version, Hell’s bells and buckets of blood (and longer still, discussed here).
May 26, 2011 at 11:20 am |
I don’t think hells no/yeah has any connection to Hell’s bells. AFAIK, it comes out of hiphop slang, where extraneous -s often appears, as in moms for mom. When this came up on ADS-L in 2006, I dug up examples going back to 1993 (Big Daddy Kane’s “Looks Like A Job For…” has a hells yeah).
May 26, 2011 at 11:34 am |
I’m not sure if this counts, but I often hear people say things like “for ______ sakes” instead of “for ______’s sake.”
For God sakes
For Pete sakes
For goodness sakes
etc.
May 26, 2011 at 2:24 pm |
This is pretty much the reverse: the omission of possessive -S after certain nouns (especially certain proper names) ending in S, especially in combination with sake(s). Lots of literature on this, going back at least to Jespersen a hundred years ago.
May 26, 2011 at 12:19 pm |
Lolcats have given the world “o(h) no(e)s” and I suspect others of that ilk. No doubt the kids bring these from the written to the spoken word.
March 11, 2013 at 10:19 am |
[…] spent some time on -s: see here and here, and especially on “excrescent -s” here, From the […]