Euphemistic expressions for “I swear,” invented by the youth of New England.

1

1802.  I snore is less flagitious than I swear; and farther, when you hear a Yanke, with his eyes open, aver that he snores, it may serve to give you an idea of our invention, wit, and humour.—The Port Folio, ii. 268 n. (Phila.).

2

1823.  “I swan it is,” included in a list of profane affirmations.—Missouri Intelligencer, May 20.

3

1824.  

        Then there was the Jurymen too,
  As much as a dozen or more;
’T would scared to death me and you
  To be boxed up in that way, I snore.
Woodstock (Vt.) Register, March 23.    

4

1839.  Here ’tis more’n six months and we ha’nt had no wedding, nor funeral, nor quiltin, nor huskin, nor nothin else. I snum, ’taint the thing for me.—Yale Lit. Mag., iv. 357 (June).

5

1839.  “Capt. Center, didn’t I tell you Van Buren was not the man?” “Yes you did, I swanney.”—Salem Advertiser, Sept. 18, p. 3/2.

6

1842.  I swan! I’m as lonesome as a catamount!—Mrs. Kirkland, ‘Forest Life,’ i. 144.

7

1847.  I swow to man, I thought he’d strike the boss.—‘The Great Kalamazoo Hunt,’ p. 44 (Phila.).

8

1853.  I swow I’ll marry you jest as soon as you set foot in Calliforny.—Durivage, ‘Life Scenes,’ p. 59.

9

1853.  Wall, I swow! you a conductor of other folks.—Weekly Oregonian, Sept. 10.

10

1853.  Want to know! wall, I swan yeou air hitched queer.—Id., Sept. 3. (For fuller citation see WANT TO KNOW.)

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1854.  Sech a smell of hogs and fat, brissels and hot water, I swan tu pucker I never did calc’late on before.—N.Y. Spirit of the Times, n.d.

12

1856.  I swan teu man, I thought I never should get home.—Weekly Oregonian, Aug. 2.

13

1857.  I swow I rayther kalkerlate he’d swallowed a buzzard!—Knick. Mag., l. 457 (Nov.).

14

1858.  I swow, Bill, I can’t exactly come at the sense of your observation.—Id., li. 7 (Jan.).

15

1862.  

        We hain’t no settled preachin’ here, ner ministeril taxes;
The min’ster’s only settlement ’s the carpet-bag he packs his
Razor an’ soup-brush intu, with his hymbook an’ his Bible,—
But they du preach, I swan to man, it ’s puf’kly indescrib’le!
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 2nd Series, No. 1.    

16

1878.  I’m nigh about skeered to death, parson. I swan to man I be.—Rose T. Cooke, ‘Cal Culver and the Devil,’ Harper’s Mag., lvii. 583 (Sept.).

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