One of the most popular phrases in society are the three letters omg. Sometimes the letters are capitalized to emphasize drama or exclamation. Other times, the letters are lower case—perhaps this is to reflect the less than dramatic nature of letter usage; lower case letters are also used due to laziness. (I find on social media, many people no longer capitalize the first letter in a sentence, use a capital “I” or use punctuation, Laziness has taken hold of our written communication.)
A friend of mine told me how upset she becomes when people use the words “oh my god” and “omg”. She says they are profaning God’s name. Intrigued by her comments, I researched the phrase “oh my god” and the letters “omg”. I also explored the third commandment and how it has been interpreted throughout history.
Oh my god
Oh my god is an exclamation expressing disbelief, frustration, excitement, or anger. Its abbreviation, omg, is widely used in digital communication.
Related words include:
oh em gee
ay dios mio
oh my lord
oh my heavens
oh my gosh
oh my goodness
History of the phrase oh my god
The phrase oh my god has a long history, with record of the oath my god dated to at least 1340. It’s possible that oh my god is a variation on both my god and oh god, both of which have historically been used to express emotions like dismay, astonishment, and frustration. These early uses may have their roots in prayer, expressing gratitude, request for help, or pleading for forgiveness from a higher power.
The particular construction oh my god appears in print in 1880s in a religious context, showing up as a more general exclamation of extreme emotion by 1905. The relatively late appearance of the phrase may be due to long-running taboos against using God or any associated name in the English-speaking world. The phrase oh my god sees more and more recorded use as these attitudes began to soften.
In 1917, omg, first appeared in print—in a letter to Winston Churchill. The abbreviation was preceded by migod and ohmigod in the 19th century, meant to imitate the colloquial pronunciation of the exclamation.
The letters omg gained widespread usage with the rise of digital communication in the late 20th-century, likely propelled by character limits placed on early text- and instant-messaging. While originating as a shortening of oh my god, omg has become so common that speakers now widely use omg, in everyday speech. The letters omg are fast losing their association with the words oh my god. When asked what omg stands for, many under the age of 20 (generation z and alpha) did not know.
The phrase is widely used among religious and non-religious people in speech, print-based writing, and digital communication as a casual way to express a great range of emotions.
It can express joy (“Oh my god! I just got a job offer!”),
despair (“Oh my god! I just got fired,”),
relief (“Oh my god, I’m so glad that exam is over,”),
dread (“Oh my god, I don’t want to go to work today,”),
excitement (“Oh my god, it’s so good to see you!”),
fear (“Oh my god! There’s a spider!”),
astonishment (“Oh my god, I wasn’t expecting that,”),
disbelief (“Oh my god. Is that really how you pronounce that?”),
approval (“Oh my god, this is delicious,”),
frustration (“Oh my god, this is hard,”), and other emotions, both positive and negative.
Given the commonness and versatility of the phrase, oh my god is increasingly used as a kind of discourse marker, indicating less of the communication of an intense emotion and more to get someone’s attention, signal something important, show familiarity or attentiveness with another, or make an exaggeration.
Oh my gosh
Much like oh my god, or the shortened form omg, oh my gosh can also be condensed into omg, and thus people have no idea whether you say omg if you are talking about god or gosh. (For what it is worth, omg can also be used to abbreviate oh my goodness or oh my gracious. When I asked my mom what omg meant, without hesitation she said, “Oh my goodness.” When I asked her doesn’t it mean oh my god, she said yes, it can mean that, but when she sees omg, she believes it means oh my goodness.)
What is gosh?
Gosh is an invented word used in place of the word God. Gosh was invented for religious people to use instead of using God, fearing using the word God is invoking his name in vain.
A similar invention happened with the word heck. Heck was created by religious folks who feared using the word hell due to its crudeness and its offensiveness to some people. According to dictionaries online, heck is a synonym for hell and gosh and goodness are synonyms for God.
A minced oath
A minced oath is a euphemistic expression formed by deliberately misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo word or phrase to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics. An example is using "gosh" for “God".
Many languages have such expressions. In the English language, nearly all profanities have minced variants.
The use of minced oaths in English dates back at least to the 14th century, when "gog" and "kokk", both euphemisms for God, were in use. Other early minced oaths include "Gis" or "Jis" for Jesus (1528). Common minced oaths include Geez Louise for Jesus or Jesus Christ, dang/darn for damn, golly for God, dagnabbit for God damn it, for crying out loud instead of for Christ’s sake, holy cow for Jesus or Holy God, cheese and crackers for Jesus Christ, etc.
Minced oaths for oh my god include: oh my goodness, oh my gosh, my gracious, my word, oh my word, oh my, etc.
The minced oath uses different words which have the same rhythm or sounds as the original phrase. As seen from the above list, most minced oaths are used in regards to God or Jesus. Although the person uttering the minced oath does not invoke God or Jesus’ name, the intent is the same. Muttering oh my gosh or oh my goodness has the same intent as saying the phrase oh my god.
Another common minced oath is mispronouncing a word. For example, saying gawd instead of God or lawd instead of Lord. People will say oh my gawd instead of oh my god or oh lawd instead of oh lord.
Oh my lord
Oh my lord is an exclamation widely used to express surprise or frustration. It is commonly abbreviated as oml. Oh my lord may also be expressed as oh may lawd or oh em el.
Oh my lord History
Oh my lord is part of a family of religious-derived interjections in the English language, notably including oh my god and oh my heavens. While they may have originated as prayerful invocations (Oh, my Lord!) in English, they have become widely used as an exclamation in secular society. In the written record, we can find evidence for lord as an interjection in the late 1300s, though almost certainly such expressions as oh my lord predated it in everyday speech.
Like its more common counterpart oh my god, oh my lord has widespread use in colloquial speech and writing to express surprise, shock, frustration, or exasperation. It usually begins an utterance or sentence (e.g., Oh my lord, did you see what he was wearing? or Oh my lord, not this again.). On the internet and social media, oh my lord is more commonly seen as the initialism oml.
Thank God
Thank God is used as an expression mostly of gratitude. The expression was originally used to give thanks to God in heaven, but today the words are used in a more casual way and may or may not reflect an actual praise to God. Similar phrases include: thank goodness or thank heaven.
Wow
Wow is an old Scottish term coined many centuries ago and brought to the USA in the 1700’s. Wow is a shortened form of I vow. When a person says wow, he is really saying I vow. For example: Wow! That is a massive ice cream sundae. The true translation would be: I vow! That is a huge ice cream sundae. Who the person is vowing by depends on the person’s affiliation. The phrase could easily be seen as a person taking an oath by God that the following words are true. I vow is a mined oath.
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