laws-a-mercy

Meanings

1. 1
   intj

   dated or dialectal: an exclamation of surprise, alarm, or wonder; a minced form of Lord have mercy

   Laws-a-mercy! Aunt Sally cried when she saw how late it had become.

A euphemistic alteration of Lord have mercy, reshaped in colloquial speech to avoid directly invoking the divine name. Historical spellings vary widely in spacing, hyphenation, and clipping.

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