Gadzooks
[gad-ZOOKS]
Part of speech: exclamation
Origin: English, late 17th century
1.
An exclamation of surprise or annoyance.
Examples of Gadzooks in a sentence
"Gadzooks! This coffee is hot!"
"I was just walking down the street, and gadzooks, it started pouring!"
About Gadzooks
Gadzooks is an exclamation (sometimes known as an interjection). This part of speech is a word or short phrase that can stand on its own grammatically. It's used to insert surprise, excitement, or even pain and sadness. Anything that packs a punch — like the "pows!" and "bams!" of the old "Batman" cartoons — may be an exclamation.
Did you Know?
Although it is in the same family as "cheers," "good grief," "hooray," "kaboom," and "yabba dabba doo," "gadzooks" has a more religious origin story. It's an alteration of "God's hooks," i.e., the nails that held Jesus to the cross. "Gadzooks" serves a similar purpose to invoking a holy figure in your swears.
