"heavens to Betsy" meaning in English

See heavens to Betsy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Interjection

Etymology: Of unknown origins. Speculated to be a euphemism for hell's bells, but there is not sufficient evidence to support this. Attested from 1857. Etymology templates: {{unk|en|Of unknown}} Of unknown, {{sup|P2b}} ᴾ²ᵇ, {{glossary|euphemism}} euphemism, {{m|en|hell's bells}} hell's bells Head templates: {{en-interj}} heavens to Betsy
  1. (chiefly US, dated) Good gracious; good heavens. Tags: US, dated Synonyms: wow

Download JSON data for heavens to Betsy meaning in English (2.2kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Of unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Of unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "P2b"
      },
      "expansion": "ᴾ²ᵇ",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "euphemism"
      },
      "expansion": "euphemism",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hell's bells"
      },
      "expansion": "hell's bells",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Of unknown origins. Speculated to be a euphemism for hell's bells, but there is not sufficient evidence to support this. Attested from 1857.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "heavens to Betsy",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1857 May 1, Frederick W. Saunders, “The Serenade: A Tale of Revenge”, in Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, volume v, number 5, Boston, MA, page 419",
          "text": "\"Heavens to Betsy!\" he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, \"I've cut my head off!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin",
          "text": "Then there's New Age entrepreneur Deepak Chopra, who, in bis 1989 book Quantum Healing, promises a pathway to curing cancer, reversing aging, and, heavens to Betsy, even immortality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Good gracious; good heavens."
      ],
      "id": "en-heavens_to_Betsy-en-intj-0SS2wJ2A",
      "links": [
        [
          "Good gracious",
          "good gracious"
        ],
        [
          "good heavens",
          "good heavens"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, dated) Good gracious; good heavens."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "wow"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "heavens to Betsy"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Of unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "Of unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "P2b"
      },
      "expansion": "ᴾ²ᵇ",
      "name": "sup"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "euphemism"
      },
      "expansion": "euphemism",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hell's bells"
      },
      "expansion": "hell's bells",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Of unknown origins. Speculated to be a euphemism for hell's bells, but there is not sufficient evidence to support this. Attested from 1857.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "heavens to Betsy",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with unknown etymologies"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1857 May 1, Frederick W. Saunders, “The Serenade: A Tale of Revenge”, in Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, volume v, number 5, Boston, MA, page 419",
          "text": "\"Heavens to Betsy!\" he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, \"I've cut my head off!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin",
          "text": "Then there's New Age entrepreneur Deepak Chopra, who, in bis 1989 book Quantum Healing, promises a pathway to curing cancer, reversing aging, and, heavens to Betsy, even immortality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Good gracious; good heavens."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Good gracious",
          "good gracious"
        ],
        [
          "good heavens",
          "good heavens"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, dated) Good gracious; good heavens."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "wow"
    }
  ],
  "word": "heavens to Betsy"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.