By Jingo

Meanings:

Euphemism for the name of God; an oath

“‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘Why not, by Jingo?’” —T.H. White, The Once and Future King (1939)

Surprise

Variations and Incantations:

By gee, by gosh, by jingo

“[H]e whistled the ballad ‘Oh, by gee, by gosh, by jingo’ as though it were a hymn melancholy and noble.” —Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (1921)

By jingo by gee by gosh by gum

—e.e. cummings, “next to of course god america i” (1926)

By the living jingo

—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1903)

High jingo!

—Michael Connelly, The Closers (2005)

In Literature:

“By jingo, that would be awful!” —James Joyce, Ulysses (1922)

“I shall never forget it; by Jingo, it has served me for a most excellent good joke ever since.” —Fanny Burney, Evelina (1778)

“[B]y Jingo was not my Lolita a child!” —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

“By jingo, I’m kerfoozled!” —Brian Jacques, Lord Brocktree (2001)