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"Great snakes!": Where does the expression come from?

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Harrock n roll
Moderator
#11 · Posted: 30 Mar 2010 13:47
I've just found an older reference from 1889, in a book called "Americanisms, old and new; a dictionary of words, phrases and colloquialisms peculiar to the United States, British America, the West Indies, &c., their derivation, meaning and application, together with numerous anecdotal, historical, explanatory and folk-lore notes".

The entry for Great Snakes! simply says: "Great Snakes! A euphemistic oath".

Obviously snakes must have fascinated people, so there are quite a few expressions relating to them. As the book entry for "Snake" says: "This oftentimes venomous reptile has furnished the backwoodsman and pioneer with not a few similes and terms, most of which have found their way into the popular speech all over the Union."

There's also "As Sure As There's Snakes In Virginny" meaning an absolute certainty, "To Have Snakes In One's Boots- to be fidgetty (sic); uneasy; and more forcibly to have Delirium Tremens" and "Snake Story", meaning an incredible yarn.
jock123
Moderator
#12 · Posted: 1 Apr 2010 23:11
And back we go again, to the year 1830!
The book: Very Funny, Not Too Funny; Just Funny Enough: A careful selection of the freshest and best sketches of The Detroit Free Press Man, The Burlington Hawkeye Man, The Norristown Herald Man, The Galveston News Man, and other well known funny men, which it has to be said, isn't the snappiest of titles.

An extract is given from the Detroit Free Press, entitled "Why She Knew", purporting to be a report on a court case heard in Wayne County over a dispute concerning the ownership of grain sacks. The defendant's wife is called as a witness, and she becomes progressively more flustered as she is cross-examined.

In a run of exclamations getting on for one of the Captain's tirades in variety if not force, she uses all of the following: "Land save me!"; "Oh! Land!"; "Sakes alive!"; "Oh! Stars and garters!"; "Oh! Stars!"; "Oh! Lands!"; "Bless Granny!"; "Oh! Dear, oh!"; "Oh! Dear!"; and, finally, "Great snakes!"

I think from this that we can take it that the use of "land" is probably a euphemism for "Lord"; the "Sakes alive!" makes me wonder if that, and the similar "Snakes alive!" are euphemisms for "Saints alive!"? That suggests to me that it may have been that "Great snakes!" actually started as milder form of "Great saints!"; I've not found anything to back this up, but I'm only putting this forward as a hypothesis.
jock123
Moderator
#13 · Posted: 10 Jan 2013 17:47
Harrock n roll:
Will have to look out for a copy of the radio series to see if it is used there.

Following my earlier reply to Harrock about the lack of Dick Barton episodes to further research the use of "Great Snakes!" in the series, I just came across some astounding news!

In 2009 (although not revealed until 2011) an archivist following up clues in an Australia collection uncovered a forgotten haul of over 300 Dick Barton episodes made in the late Forties and early Fifties.

These are not the actual original versions of the shows as went out on the BBC in the UK, but are re-makes, recorded for sale by the BBC Overseas division, using a different cast, but the same scripts, sound-effects and music cues as broadcast on the Light Programme (an earlier incarnation of what is now BBC Radio 2). Presumably this use of a "B" cast was actually a cost-saving measure, as presumably the major stars didn't have to be paid repeats fees for use elsewhere, and their replacements were presumably on a contract which didn't offer royalties.

Many of the found stories have now been released on CD, and some episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra, so perhaps someone out there has heard some of them, and perhaps they could report back for us?

You can read an interview with researcher Charles Norton here about the episodes and their recovery.

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