(Herewith is the fourth and last of a series of articles dealing with words. Two previous articles dealt with origin, uses, and variations on the word Crud. A third examined the numerous possibilities inherent in the word Venus and variations on same .... NGB)

GOSH WOW BOY O BOY

"Gosh" is derived from the ancient Greek idiom Goshius and freely translated means, Gee Whiz! "Wow" comes from an early Egyptian version of the Morse Code and is similiar in many respects to the English term S.O.S. As most scholars are aware, S.O.S. means Save Our Souls and is expressed in code by a series of dots and dashes. W.O.W. stands for Worchesius Olius Walos and the ancient Egyptians expressed it in a long series of undecipherable hieroglyphics.

Boy" is thought to have been originated by the Prussians and originaly spelled Bowiea. Moreover, a group of etymologists claim they have traced the origin of the word back to an east Prussian metal-smith living in the 18th century. They further claim that the metal-smith went on a drunk one night and during a lighter moment decided to forge a spoon. They state that what resulted was not a spoon but what is now known as a Bowie knife.....

Another version has it that there is a direct connection between the metal-smith Bowiea, his invention, and the expression of a small child around Christmas time of; "Boy, a knife!"

All this of course is mostly theory. What facts are known is that the French, in their translation of the word, somehow or other doubled it so it became Boyboy. The English either did not notice the error or were to apathetic to bother correcting it.

But, when it was passed on to the Irish, they changed it to its present form as it is today. At the time of the word's arrival in Ireland, the Irish were going through a period of individualism unmatched by our present civilization. At that time, surnames were just coming into popular usage; and the Irish, to set themselves off from the rest of the masses, were placing the letter "O" in front of their last names. Thus, when BoyBoy reached Ireland, the Irish in their state of extreme individualism, broke the word apart and inserted the then currently popular letter "O" in the centre.

In that form, the publicity department of the Mayflower expedition brought it to America. Unfortunatly, although the publicity department did a wonderful job of publicizing the actual event, they failed miserably when it came to passing on many of the gems of wit and wisdom that rested in their files. Thus, although its component parts were passed on to the language, the complete expression itself lay dormant for many years.

It was two unrelated factors that had much to do with bringing the expression back into popularity. One of them was a game that children play and the other was a popularity of a form of literature.

When a state of war exhists any place in the world, its effect upon children is to cause them to play a game of mock war. The commonly used expression during such periods is; "Bang, bang. You're dead." It is to be understood that this is not the only game played by children; rather it is a game directly dependent upon world political conditions, and these conditions are not always war-like.

During the various interim periods, the game played was usually dependent upon the type of literature then currently popular with the reading public. Thus, when Western stories were the vogue, the children's game became Cowboys and Indians, and the expression used most was; "Bang, bang. You're dead"

A factor that altered the situation considerably was the Detective type story. The children gradually became aware of this plot and their games of play changed accordingly. This new form of emotional outlet was called Cops and Robbers by those who played it; and the most commonly used expression in the vocabuealry of the game was "Bang, bang. You're dead;"

The sudden rise in popularity of the Science Fiction type story of course again changed all this. Science Fiction became an accepted form of literature; it became a reading habit of millions of people; and it drastically changed the way of youth.

Children found that science fiction opened up such a wealth of ideas, and that such an infinite number of forms of expression existed that the phrase "Bang, bang. You're dead." seemed inadequate. It was here that the expression that had remained dormant in the language for so, long came back into popular usage. It was here that the expression that fitted so many situations became an integral part of the national vocabulary. It was here, in a country where half the words spoken were issued in exclamation that "Goshwowboyoboy" reigned supreme.

So in future, remember this words long and complicated history, and use it wisely.

Tod Cavanaugh

Text entry and page scans provided by Judy Bemis

Updated May 16, 2003. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.