What is a blimey?

zbeckabee

Blimey - Like strewth can be an exclamation but is most often used to express bewilderment or surprise. Often prefaced with the word Gawd (God) or Cor, "Gawd blimey!". Blimey = Blind me (Oh Gosh) http://www.essortment.com/all/australianslang_rtdz.htm A minced oath, also known as a pseudo-profanity or an expletive-deletive, is an expression based on a profanity that has been altered to reduce or remove the disagreeable or objectionable characteristics of the original expression; for example, "darn" or "dang" instead of "damn", "heck" instead of "hell", and "frig" or "frack" instead of "f*ck". Nearly all profanities have minced variants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blimey http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Blimey http://www.reference.com/browse/blimey Feb 10 09, 7:43 AM

satguru

I must buy Brewer's dictionary of Phrase and Fable for source references, but can say it was an oath like many similar others 'May God blind me if I lie to you', and the Cockney accent (and Australian) altered it to 'gor blimey', which is now actually a term we use in London for people who talk like that, 'gorblimeys'. Feb 10 09, 12:18 PM

intergalactic9

It's contracted from blind me! or blame me. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blimey Feb 10 09, 12:26 PM

zbeckabee

blimey -- 1889, corruption of (God) blind me! http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=blimey&searchmode=none blimey -- This is an exclamation which, like so many, derives from blasphemy, which is a way of taking God's name and using it to curse or swear. As this was frowned upon, people found ways of avoiding using the word God itself. In this case, 'blimey' comes from the expression 'God blind me'. http://www.multikultura.org.uk/lm_3.php Origin: 1885–90; orig. reduced form of blind me, as ellipsis from God blind me; cf. gorblimey. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blimey Feb 10 09, 1:35 PM

author

I actually heard it in the Mike Leigh film "Life is sweet". So I suppose it derives from cockney, and then found its way to Australian slang. Feb 11 09, 7:44 AM