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Godfrey Daniel
What's the meaning of the phrase 'Godfrey Daniel'?
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Gidfrey Daniel is a euphemistic way of saying 'God damn them' without causing offence.
What's the origin of the phrase 'Godfrey Daniel'?
Godfrey Daniel is a minced oath - much favoured by W.C.Fields. He used the expression as an exclamation, as other might have used Gordon Bennett!.
The expression was first used in England in the 19th century, as in this example from the Leicester Chronicle, December 1882:
"Godfrey Daniel, Gustavus Dor, Jeremiah Mollymuckatostway, I've found out a way to catch the thief," said Ratcatcher.
;Godfrey Daniel' can reasonably be called an American expression though as it was rarely found in print until Fields began using it in his 1930s films. It appears in several of his films, first in The Fatal Glass of Beer, 1932.
