Good Grief

Posted by R. Berg on July 25, 2006

In Reply to: Good Grief posted by Kris Crawford on July 25, 2006

: What is the origin of the phrase Good Grief, specifically how can grief be good? Thanks for your help!

It's probably a minced oath - that is, a softened form of another exclamation that might be deemed blasphemous. In this case, the other exclamation is "Good God!"

Grieving is often good psychologically, better than suppressing grief after a loss, but the only relevant feature of the word "grief" for this phrase is its initial G.