Yosemite Sam Helped Popularize the Mild Oath “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello there.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Cynthia Light. This must be Grant.

It is Grant.

Hi, Cynthia, where are you calling from?

I am calling from beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin, on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River.

Well, tell us about your language question. What do you got on your mind?

I love your show, first of all, and I really appreciate listening to it.

And one of the things that got stuck in my head as I was pondering my language questions was something that my father used to say, and that was, it was an exclamation if you were startled or surprised by something. He would say, Jumpin’ G. Hassafat.

Jumpin’ G. Hassafat.

I have no idea what that means.

None whatsoever.

The only thing that I had some, like, possible speculation about was, for some reason, Hassafat, and I don’t know why I think this, but that there’s some portion of it that has some kind of devilish connotation.

What gives you that idea?

I have no idea. I don’t know.

Jumping Jehoshaphat.

Well, yes, the actual root of that is the name of an ancient king of Judah who’s mentioned in the Old Testament. And his name was Jehoshaphat, actually.

Jehoshaphat.

And this got popularized back in the 19th century when you had words like this that were used as sort of mild oaths, you know, instead of, you know, saying the Lord’s name in vain or something, you say, gee whiz or something. And jumpin’ Jehoshaphat is another version of that.

And it really got popularized by Yosemite Sam, the old cartoons.

That’s where I know it.

And he said Jehoshaphat, right?

Yeah, yeah.

He said jumpin’ Jehoshaphat.

But both of those pronunciations, if you go back to the original Hebrew, are wrong. It’s Jehoshaphat.

I was just going to ask you, Cynthia, it sounds like you’re saying it as if G is a middle initial. Is that what you’re saying?

Oh.

Yes, like how I would spell it. It would be jumping, you know. G period, space, H-O-S-A-P-H-A-T or something like that.

Oh, how funny.

How funny.

No, if you go back to the name of the ancient king of Judah, his name was spelled J-E-H-O-S-H-A-P-H-A-T.

Okay.

Jehoshaphat.

But why the jumping?

Is it just because of the alliteration?

Yeah, I think so.

Or was he known as a great jumper?

No, he was known as a good king, but I don’t think there was any jumping involved.

Just because he was a handy J name, right?

Yeah, yeah.

It’s kind of funny to say, actually, because it’s so unusual in our language.

Yeah, yeah.

So it’s sort of like suffering succotash, you know, kind of the same idea.

Okay.

That’s hilarious that your father said it that way.

And I was wondering, too, Martha, is there any kind of regional aspect to it?

Because we were all Midwesterners and, you know, German Methodists in Michigan with a pretty strong German heritage.

Does that have any influence?

I don’t think it has so much to do with German.

It’s just it’s a good old Americanism.

Oh, mm—

I think it’s aged at this point.

I think you’re far less likely to encounter it among the younger generations,

But not least because they don’t watch Yosemite Sam anymore.

So how did we do, Cynthia?

Fantastic.

Thank you so much for your help.

Now I’m going to go look up the real person and find out more about them.

Super.

One of these days we’re going to get to beautiful lacrosse, you know.

Oh, well, let me know.

Bye-bye.

Thanks for calling.

Much appreciated.

Thank you.

All right.

Our pleasure.

Love your show.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We do talk a lot about the things our parents used to say,

But you know what, Martha?

I think the kids are saying cool stuff, too.

If you want to talk about either ends of the spectrum,

Give us a call, 877-929-9673,

Or write it all up in email, words@waywordradio.org.