Dawn French Fan Club 3

gerardM a écrit:

So David is finally engaged, and is excited to show off his new bride.
“Mother”, he said, “I’m going to bring home three girls and I want you to guess which one is my fiance.”
Sure enough twenty minutes later, David walks in the door with three girls following behind him.
“It’s that one”, said his mother, without blinking an eye.
“Holy cow”, exclaimed David, “how in the world did you know it was her?”
“I just don’t like her”, she replied.

gerardM a écrit:Muriel, I hope you'll remember the common "Holy cow!"

MurielB a écrit:

gerardM a écrit:Muriel, I hope you'll remember the common "Holy cow!"

What do you mean, Gérard ?

gerardM a écrit:

MurielB a écrit:

gerardM a écrit:Muriel, I hope you'll remember the common "Holy cow!"

What do you mean, Gérard ?

Simply that it is a mild swearword/interjection such as "Oh my god" or "My goodness" or "Good gracious me". In increasing order of "power", there's "Holy shit".
In French, don't we have "Oh la vache !"?
Do you think "Holy cow" comes from India?

Origins: 
Earliest traced American use in 1905 in a newspaper in the state of Minnesota. 
Commonly used by American baseball players as early as 1913. They used “Holy cow!” in place of obscene words in order to avoid penalties during the game. Famous Chicago Cubs sports broadcaster, Harry Caray, used the term often to prevent himself from using vulgar language on-air. Popular New York Yankee shortstop and later announcer, Phil Rizzuto, was also famous for using the term. 
In India, cows are believed to be holy by the Hindu religion. Two nineteenth century English authors incorporated the phrase in their Hindu-influenced writing (see below), suggesting that a similar phrase may have been used in India as early as the 1820’s. Although this literature does not prove that the exclamation was ever used by Hindus in India, they do reflect the origins from English people’s lives in India. Knowing this, English speakers in India may have also adapted the phrase instead of using more offensive words such as “Holy Christ!”. 

gerardM a écrit:

Good going Muriel!

Thanks for these words about the origin.