Gordon Bennett

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English

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Etymology

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For James Gordon Bennett, Jr., a New York newspaper proprietor and playboy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who became widely known for his extravagant lifestyle and shocking behaviour.[1] The first time the expression appears in print was in 1937, in James Curtis's novel, You’re in the Racket, Too.[2] The Oxford English Dictionary places the phrase in the 1890s as an alteration of gorblimey and again in reference to James Gordon Bennett Jr.[3]

The name was probably chosen because the first syllable of Gordon sounds like God in non-rhotic pronunciations, which would make this a minced oath.

Interjection

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Gordon Bennett

  1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, frustration.

Synonyms

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References

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Further reading

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