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Heavens to Betsy 2

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Thadeus

Technical User
Jan 16, 2002
1,548
US
Came across this phrase, 'Heavens to Betsy', as not having a discoverable etymology.
My question for any German, Dutch, Gaelic languages, etc., speakers, does 'Heavens to Betsy' *sound* like anything from your language?
My first thought was something like 'Haben du bitte', but realize the grammar is wrong for modern German... and while 'Haben Sie bitte' is better grammar and brings in the 'Sie' sound, it should be after the 'bitte', as in 'bitte Sie' to sound like 'Betsy'. Was also thinking of the possibility of 'Helfen' as well, not that it makes any more grammatical sense.

So I am just curious if it sounds like anything in one of the early immigrant languages brought to America. I am imagining that an English speaker overheard it and repeated in a phonetic manner.

~thadeus
 
Never thought to find the roots. I actually have not heard the statement for many years and since the only language I am remotely familiar with is American English, I cannot help you. :)


djj
The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23) - I need someone to lead me!
 
Heavens to Murgatroyd, how would I know!

Skip,
[sub]
[glasses]Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![tongue][/sub]
 
Actually it came from a dyslexic lama.

Tibet is where Earth touches the heavens, so the monk coined the phrase, "Heavens Tibet see"



Skip,
[sub]
[glasses]Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![tongue][/sub]
 
Doesn't ring any bell in my german ear.

I found but it's also unclear about the origin and more so on who Betsy was.

It reminds me of "Great Scott", which Doc Brown said and sounds like "Großer Gott" (Great God) as the german variant of OMG (which we also say 1:1 as English/Americans as Oh mein Gott).
Great Scott actually was translated to "Großer Gott" in the german dubbed version of Back To The Future, but there's no similar correspondence with Heavens to Betsy.

Bye, Olaf.
 
from my DuckDuckGo search engine:

The etymologist Charles Earle Funk published Heavens to Betsy! and other curious sayings in 1955. In that he ventured the opinion that the origins of 'Heavens to Betsy' were "completely unsolvable".


==================================
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