Strewth

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. A casual British exclamation used to express astonishment, annoyance, or strong feeling
2. An informal oath uttered to convey surprise, exasperation, or emphatic agreement in British English
3. A colloquial British interjection serving to express shock, irritation, or emphatic assertion

Etymology: "Strewth" is a minced oath, a disguised form of "God's truth" in which the sacred word is cut down to avoid blasphemy. Its near relatives follow the same pattern: "zounds" comes from "God's wounds," and "blimey" is a softened form of "God blind me." Such euphemisms let speakers express surprise or emphasis while keeping the sacred name out of their mouths. The shift from "God's truth" to "strewth" happened through the ordinary wear of speech, with the initial consonant cluster simplified and the word shortened into a single exclamation. Oaths of this kind were common in English speech, and the minced versions often sounded far enough from the original that speakers no longer heard the religious phrase behind them.