oathlet

English

Etymology

oath +‎ -let

Noun

oathlet (plural oathlets)

1. (dated) A minced oath.
   • 1847, Thomas Campbell, Samuel Carter Hall, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, New Monthly Magazine - Volume 79, page 162:

     The visitors were prepared with a meek, uncomplaining, expected fourpenny fee to the janitor; no murmur, no half-vented oathlet at a verger, no smothered blessing—in italics—of the dean and chapter, but the hush-money was held out with a perfect quiet, as though it was indeed hushed by the breathing silence of the cathedral itself!

   • 1901, Richard Grant White, Histories and poems, page 275:

     cock and pie: an obsolete oathlet, in which "cock" may be a corruption of God, and "pie" the Romish mass-book; but the reference may be merely to a cock and a magpie, which were coupled on tavern signs.

   • 1908, Henry Norman Hudson, Romeo and Juliet, page 117:

     Afore me is a mild protestation, — a sort of oath, or oathlet.

2. (nonce word) A pledge or promise that does not carry the full level of commitment of an oath.
   • 2000, Clifton Fadiman, Andre Bernard, Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes:

     At his restoration "fat Louis" was fully and sympathetically aware of his subjects' need to let bygones be bygones. The elderly M. de Barentin was stumblingly explaining to Louis how it was that he had not — strictly speaking —in actual fact — sworn an oath of allegiance to Napoleon Bonaparte. “I quite understand,” Louis broke in.“At our age one only does things by halves. You didn't swear an oath to Bonaparte, you swore an oathlet."