Crikey

I’ll just stick with “Yikes.”

Dear Word Detective: I have really been wondering about the definition and derivation of “crikey.” Does it have a relationship with “cripes”? — Bernardine.

Good question, and one presumably prompted, as many I receive are, by events in the news, in this case the sad and untimely death of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin in Australia last year. “Crikey” was Irwin’s signature catchword, an exclamation he seemed to employ on every conceivable occasion, especially on his TV show The Crocodile Hunter.

“Crikey” doesn’t seem too common in the US at the moment, although as a child I often heard my parents use it. The veterinary clinic in the small town near us here in Ohio, for instance, managed to misspell it as “crickey” in the nice tribute to Steve Irwin they posted in front of their clinic building. I keep meaning to stop by and point out the error.

Or maybe I’ll let that sleeping dog lie, because if I explained the term to them they would almost certainly take the sign down completely. “Crikey” is, apparently unbeknownst to many people who toss it off as a simple substitute for “golly,” a euphemism for “Christ” and was coined as a way to swear an oath without technically committing blasphemy. “Crikey” has a wide range of siblings in popular use invented for the same purpose, including “cripes,” “criminy,” “Jiminy Cricket” (for “Jesus Christ”) and “cracky.” There is some evidence that “crikey” and “cracky” were originally coupled with “by” (“by cracky” has long been a standard locution in westerns) to replicate the classic “swear by” oath form.

The first appearance of “crikey” in print found so far was in 1838, but, as is often the case, we can assume that the word was in oral use for many years or even decades before that date. The development of such alternatives to blasphemy has been a sort of hobby for humans for centuries (“crimeny,” for instance dates back to at least 1681), and so widespread and accepted have such forms become that most of us don’t realize that we use them on a daily basis. “Gosh” or “golly” (for “God”), “gee” or “geez” (for “Jesus”), and even “for Pete’s sake” (i.e., “for Christ’s sake”) don’t raise eyebrows in even conservative crowds these days.