I’ve been gently (and, I hope, jocularly) rebuked several times for using the abbreviation “OMG” on this site, with the rebukers apparently thinking that I was invoking the name of God, something apparently forbidden for atheists. (I won’t mention similar rebukes in more salacious situations.) It happened again today with reader Lauren.
But in this case all the readers are wrong, for on this site “OMG” stands for “Oh mi gato!”, which of course is Spanish for “Oh, my cat!”
Let the rebukes cease from now on.
You’re welcome to think of other non-goddy phrases for which “OMG” is an acronym.
“Ow! My genitals!”
I really need to find another line of work.
Mine hurt now and I don’t even have any!
Cackle!
Really? Sorry to hear about that.
You obviously have, and ones of steel, making an ambiguous comment like that to ‘Missironfistatheist’…
😉
Rofl!
Lol to Jerry and Stephen!
Well, the phrase is generally reserved for something unbelievable, no? So, what better word to use than the ultimate in unbelievability?
Besides, a god’s name isn’t useful for much other than being taken in vain.
I vote for the retention of “Oh, my God!” as the expansion.
Jesus Christ people, have you no sense of blasphemy!?
b&
Ach, Meine Katze ( AMK)
I NEVER capitalise the god word.
But PCC blasphemes – he takes the name of Ceiling Cat in vain! 😉
Oh, I’ll capitalize it when it’s the proper name of a fictional character. And, in so doing, often have to make reference to the eponymous confusion, akin to somebody who names a d*g, “D*g.”
In this instance, “God” is the most popular nickname for the god originally named, “YHWH.” But, “Oh my YHWH!” doesn’t quite sound right, so, “Oh my God!” it is!
b&
O MY (Oh, My YHWH)?
PS That’s Jesus H Christ!
Instead of “goddamn,” GotDamn! No one really hears the difference, but still…
What does the ‘H’ stand for?
Haploid!
b&
🙂
But didn’t jebus have two dads?
It’s…complicated.
Joseph had two daddies; we know this from the official genealogies.
Or, alternatively, if we are to take seriously the oft-repeated claims that there’s just no way that could be the case, then we must conclude that there were two Josephs, both married to Mary.
Jesus had Joseph (and Joseph?) as a father. It was the Holy Spirit who impregnated Mary, so that’s another father. And, of course, he had God the Father as a father. And, since he (Jesus) and the Father are one, he has himself as a father. And the entire trinity is also its own singular entity, somehow, so that’s another father.
I hope somebody else is keeping track of all this, because I sure can’t count that high….
b&
Recursion (n): See recursion.
Damn! I’m beginning to thing the whole thing’s made up.
No, it can’t possibly be! Hasn’t Faith informed you it’s Truth?
b&
Harold – as in “Harold be thy name…”
How about Haggis, as in “Haggis for breakfast…”
😎
Oh My God will not stop being used by me. I love to say it for great effect, same with Jesus Christ. But from now on OMG will definitely translate to ¡Oh mi gato!
Yeah I say oh my god all the time. I am a blasphemer through and through. It offends the holy which I sometimes feel a bit sad about but oh well. ’tis the hazards of being my friend/coworker/passerby.
I wish there were some secular, non-theistic oaths to replace expressions like OMG et al. Are there? If someone has created a website, dictionary, etc, please point me to it. In the meantime, I must continue to use expressions such as OMG, JCA, JMJ, etc.
There’s “goats and monkeys” from “Othello”, but it just doesn’t have the same recognition factor/power as phrases like OMG.
Holey Shit?
Oh, my Goodness!
Yes, I’m afraid I got used to that one when the kids were small, gosh darn it.
😀
I thought I was being original about a year ago when I wrote something using “OMNG!” Later I did a search and it has been in the Urban Dictionary for over 4 years.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=OMNG
Beans and rice can be a stopper.
I nominate “by the hammer of Thor”.
No. By Grabthar’s Hammer!
b&
Great Odin’s Raven!
GOR blimey? (Peck out my eyeballs?)
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Great Caesar’s Ghost!
But, wasn’t he — or they — deified at some point?
Being a god is pretty much part of the job description for an emperor. I’m hard pressed to think of one who didn’t, at a minimum, trace his heritage back to some heavenly figure or some such.
b&
secular, non-theistic oaths
There are plenty, but most of them are censored before watershed.
I mean…this is Dr Jerry Coyne…Professor Ceiling Cat!
What ELSE could “OMG” be but, “oh mi gatto!”
Oooo, mon gâteau?
What’s French for “pake”?
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You mean Schrodinger’s cat?!
🙂
oh mio gatto
which is the Italian for the same thing.
Jerry, Evolutionary Scientist, Understands Stuff!
Nice!
When I say Oh My God, it does not refer to any specific deity.
Just like when I say “Oh shit” it does not refer to a specific pile of fecal matter.
You’re right. It can be difficult to distinguish a god from a pile of shit….
b&
I claim that it is impossible. And some proof…
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/rokos-basilisk-wants-you.html
Thesis: “Why should we bet the welfare of our immortal souls on a single vision of a Holy Shit.”
Excellent point. It is always possible that somebody, somewhere, considers that pile of shit to be worthy of worship; and, conversely, that any given god could be the intrusion into our spacetime continuum of the pile of shit shat out by some pandimensional hyperalien.
b&
it’s no joke, people will really worship poop.
http://www.sathyasai.org/calendar/sank.html
Holy shit!
b&
Anyone know of any good proxies for “bless you?”
Rotate between, “gesundheit,” “salud,” “a tes souhaits,” and so on.
b&
Yeah, where I grew up ‘gesundheit’ was almost as common as ‘bless you’, maybe even more so among the older generation, so it sounds normal to my ear. I have to admit that I didn’t really use it regularly, though, until I wanted a substitute for ‘bless you’. I’ll use ‘salud’ quite a bit, too.
Another vote for “gesundheit” here.
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Blow yer nose already!
Just don’t breath and leave the room. That may seem impolite, but a sneeze can carry germs several meters away from the sneezer. On an airplane you are basically screwed.
“Duck”?
“FORE!”?
b&
“SPOOOON!”
Ah, I see we have a Tick fan.
BE HEALED! Or you can say excuse you.
Tissue?
Do you have an issue?
FREEDOM my infectious friends
“Cut it out, before you infect us all” (just a suggestion)
I say Gesundheit but sometimes I just say, “ewwwww”.
How about, “Would you like a tissue?”
Hell, I thought Genetically modified foods again. Now it’s cats.
A little dyslexia mixed in…
OMG — GMO
😉
Genetically Moggified, as you will.
“Oh Meine Guete” (= oh my goodness, oh my gosh)
which actually is used by some German speakers and avoids the g*d word too,
w.
OMG doesn’t stand for Overgrown Macabre Gug?
And by the way this is a Gug (a native of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands).
Jesus Christ that’s horrible!
OMG!
Most impressed. That is really original in its horridness.
HPL had a… um… vivid imagination. As do the artists he’s inspired. http://ow.ly/KJ0K2
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Oh my google
One of my favorite exclamations along the same line is to say, “Jesus H. Ceiling Cat!!”
Maybe throw in a bit of Yiddish – Oy, mi gato!
HA! Bravo!
Oligocene Marsupial Galadi?
http://www.wakaleo.net/?p=146
Oligotrophic Microorganism Growth?
Old Moldy Gravy?
Oy, My Gefilte fish?
Only Mash Gluten
sour mash?
Ever since I found the FFRF, I’ve been replacing OMG with OMD. OH MY DOG.
– – – BEWARE OF DOGMA – – –
I like “OYG” as an acronym for the phrase “Oh, Your God” uttered by Bender on Futurama.
I feel no need at all to change my habitual exclamations to get rid of references to any mythological beings. I would be happy to explain to anyone how wrong they are if they think, upon hearing me so exlaim, that I must therefore believe in said mythological creatures, or must in some way be supportive of belief in such beings.
It’s a lot like those who get their rocks off declaring that we must accept Jesus because we number the year from his birth. Even if that’s true, it just means that the Christians must accept, for example, Thor, for the celebrate his birth every Thursday — and this whole month of March is a celebration of Mars.
b&
And Saturday is… KRONOS!
Obsessive Genital Manipulation?
oops, i put the genitals in the wrong place!
Ouch!
Never a good way to manipulate them!
no, and it might explain why I don’t have a girlfriend…
First you need to define obseeeive.
if it leads to a build up of calluses?
That will be tough…
Quite the contrary!
First, of course, as Humpty Dumpty enlightened us, the real question is whether you master the word or the word masters you.
But, in this particular case, since the word is quite new — and therefore young and defenseless — you can very easily define it however you like. And who’s to tell you the definition isn’t right?
So: obseeeive. noun. That blurry film that results from putting an ointment in your eye.
See? Trivial.
b&
😀
Very good!
You talking about Hili again?
Omniscient Mega Goddess
It was originally invented in 1917 by Lord Fisher, in a letter to Winston Churchill. I have the first publication of it in my collection. Well removed from the way we use it today.
Elucidate, please!
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Yes, do!
Happy to! I wrote a blog post on the origins of OMG way back which efficiently sums it up… https://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/omg-its-not-new-at-all-omg/
Thanks, Matthew!
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The teenager says “Oh, my goodness!” whenever this parental unit suggests something unthinkably horrible, e.g. that said teenager should plan ahead, help with some housework, or go to bed.
I think your teenager is “taking the piss” as we say Downunder.
“Obey My Goulash”
…I’ve adopted “oh, my goosebumps!” whenever something gets my hackles up, since I first heard Taslima Nasreen use it—and it also brings to mind, “ermahgerd, gersberms er mah favrit berks!”
I never say Bless you. Always have said Gesundheit, which just means health. My fairly Catholic Salvadoran sister in law says Jesus! (pronounced Hay-zeuuuuuuus!)
I always say “excuse you” or, if I’m feeling motivated, “BE HEALED!”
ROFL! I love it, “BE HEALED” is hilarious!
When I use OMG it’s in reference to Oh My GUT, as in grand unification theory
Gotta love nested initialisms and acronyms.
GNU’s Not Unix must be a favorite of yours….
b&
WINE Is Not an Emulator.
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PINE Is Not ELM.
What’s always struck me is how many of these define themselves by what they’re not….
b&
Atheism is …
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No fair! There’s no “n” in atheism!
b&
😁
It occurs to me that we’re missing the most important smiley of all in our emoji:
http://www.pageresource.com/clipart/clipart/space/aliens/alien-0.png
b&
Probably named by atheists. 🙂
Well, Stallman doesn’t have any gods that I know of, for one.
b&
I think that might be in part due to “N” being fairly common in English.
ENGLISH’s Not Generally Like It Sounds Here…?
b&
I got so angry at my Mac not allowing me to delete a file as root from the terminal today, I briefly thought about a Linux box….but only briefly.
Oh my Goat! I attend an occasional luncheon dubbed a goat fest. The convener carries the acronym GPG (Grand Pooh-bah Goat). All Hail the Goat…. So what else could OMG stand for?
WTF: “Watch This Feline”
WTF= What’s The Function
Omnibenevolent, My Gluteus maximus!
Or, easier, Oy, My Gluteus!
Good god, at this point if someone’s being a pedant about OMG you can claim rhetorical usage of the letters all by themselves. As with many other acronyms, people will literally say “O-M-G” as an expression independent of its origin. “FUBAR,” and “SNAFU” are a few examples of acronyms which, though pronounced as words, are still acronyms which will almost certainly avoid scrutiny when used in a setting where profanity is prohibited. Why would “OMG” be different in an atheistic setting? It’s an expression for god’s sake!
I rather like SNAFU, and its derivative FUBAR (F***ed up beyond all recognition) and its superlative FUBB (F***ed up beyond belief).
But those are really adjectives rather than exclamations.
A nice distinction, I’ll still maintain that whether someone is saying “lawl” “omg” or “snafu” they are all examples of someone expressing something without necessarily appealing to the words the letters stand for. “Lawl” (LOL) being case in point, being an ironic play on our use of acronyms in verbal discourse.
I’ve always thought of SNAFU as a noun…
Yup, the noun being Situation
Yep, that is correct, Snafu is a sort of compound noun where Fubar and Fubb are adjectives. As Benjamin implied, they all get used as loose descriptions where their syntactical category isn’t very significant.
Here, in LOTR country, Oh my Gollum.
Oh, my Gandalf!
Or: Oh my, Gandalf! (What a big staff!)
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Ouch my groin!
I still prefer O Mai Ceiling Cat–OMCC. While the professor knows what he means, not everyone will. As a fellow retired Jew, I had drilled into me the concept of The Appearance of Impropriety. It is not enough to do right; you must avoid the appearance of doing wrong.
Hmm. We use ADM more than OMG since my wife’s from Mexico (Ay Dios mio). Any suggestions on that one?
Ay, Darwin mio!
Or: Ay, Dawkins mio, if you really want to let rip!
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I don’t mind the OMG. In fact I use “Oh my gawd!” a lot in real life. I love using the nonexistent lord’s name in vain.
Yeah, I feel atheists get the most fun out of cussing, cuz we don’t have the whole guilt trip thing…
I like cussing. And I particularly like doing things which somebody has explicitly ordered me not to do.
So if I can simultaneously offend both the religious (by taking the name of their god in vain) AND atheists (who think it gives credence to g*d) then as far as I’m concerned it’s Win-Win.
[Evil cackle of laughter]
God, that felt good…
LOL!
In Jesus’s name, amen!
About the only thing you can find in Jesus’s name is us, and we only come at the very end.
Ask me how I sussed that out….
b&
Je-whiz!
Orbital Maneuvering Gun as seen here in Ed White’s hand during Gemini. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/gemini_4_eva.html
Orwell, Montaigne, Galileo.
In-house DI neologism for ID: Organism Modified Genuflectionally. x
I grew up with:
Jaysus, Mary and Joseph, may all the Saints preserve us.
That was a long time ago.
Old Mother Goose
🙂
I thought one of the benefits of being an atheist is that it frees us up from all these trivial rules and taboos that ultimately mean nothing.
It’s true that I avoid the phrase “oh my god” on sites where I argue against theists because they do then tend to bring it up as a petty distraction point.
However, in other cases I’ll continue to use it much as I’ll tell a theist, who thinks it is worse to burn the Koran than a person, to go to hell even though I know that place doesn’t exist either.
My approach exactly.
Oh My Gourd!
As a Manchester City fan, I found myself angrily shouting “Ohhh, Messi’s good!!” During the Barca-City champions league tie last week.
Thanks, Nick. As a Barça fan I can continue to shout ( happily ) Oh, Messi’s Good!!!!
As a reciprocating fan, I can whisper, “….ssssSSSSssss….ssssSSSSssss….”
b&
Oh my galaxy !
ooo my goolies!