“What in the Sam Hill” is a Euphemism for “What in the Hell?”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey there.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Kathy.

I’m in Mount Gilead, North Carolina.

Mount Gilead, North Carolina.

Well, welcome to the show, Kathy.

How can we help?

I’ve always been a little puzzled. I grew up in the country in a very rural area, and my dad was a farmer, so I was exposed to a lot of different little sayings and stuff. And sometimes when he would get aggravated, he would use the expression, what in the sand hill are you doing? Or something to that effect. And, you know, I didn’t think anything about it because I knew what he meant was, what in the world are you up to?

So when I was teaching, I taught for 30 years. And, yeah, and I’m still sane relatively. Still sane. Congratulations. Relatively. But it was a joy. It was a real joy to be able to do that. But, like, one time I almost got myself in trouble, and I did not know why. I naturally asked one of my kids. He had been cutting up or not turning in an assignment or something. And I said, what in the same hill are you doing? And he looked at me. And the next day or so, I was called to the principal’s office.

Oh.

You were called to the principal’s office?

Yes.

Yes, I was called. I was told that a parent had communicated to the principal that their child’s teacher had used some inappropriate language in the classroom. I don’t know if he had ever heard that expression, but I think he thought it was a derivative of hell.

Well, Kathy, what we know about what in the Sam Hill is that it is probably a euphemism for saying what in the hell. But you were using a euphemism, so I don’t know why you got in trouble. What we can tell you about this expression is that it first shows up in North American slang in the early 1800s. And there’s kind of a funny instance of this back in 1830. There was a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Providence, Rhode Island. This letter that’s written in a very cartoonish, kind of over-the-top, hyper-French style that makes everybody think that this was probably written by a humorist, not a real person.

The letter indicates that this Frenchman is marveling at the fact that all these people, all these Americans on this ship that he’s traveling on, keep referring to Sam Hill. You know, the ship steers like Sam Hill or the wind blows like Sam Hill. And he’s asking the editor or the readers to tell him, you know, who is this Sam Hill or what is this Sam Hill? But it’s all very silly, but it suggests that this slang term Sam Hill was already sort of circulating in North America, but was probably so new that the writer was still able to have some fun with it.

The other thing that makes us think that it’s just a euphemism is that when you see this term in the 19th century, it’s not always capitalized. And sometimes it’s all one word, Sam Hill. All of this suggests to me anyway that Sam Hill was never a real person. Your dad didn’t know anybody named Sam Hill. It really is a euphemism for hell.

Well, that’s very curious.

Yes, I’m glad you were able to shed a little bit of light on that.

Well, we’re glad to have you, Kathy, and thank you for shedding a lot of light over 30 years with, you know, putting old heads on young shoulders, as they say.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, Kathy, you take care of yourself and call us again sometime, all right?

Okay, I will.

All right, be well now.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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