egad

Meanings

1. 1
   intj

   archaic: a mild exclamation expressing surprise, emphasis, outrage, or contempt

   Egad, I never expected to meet you here!

A late seventeenth-century alteration of the oath by God, probably reshaped to avoid saying the divine name directly. It belongs to the group of softened or minced oaths that includes gadzooks and zounds, and now appears chiefly in historical writing or comic imitation.

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