jesus h. christ meaning
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Jesus H. Christ
Jesus H. Christ is an expletive interjection that refers to the Christian religious figure of Jesus Christ. It is typically uttered in anger, surprise, or frustration, though sometimes also with humorous intent. The expressions “Christ”, “Jesus”, and “Jesus Christ” are also used as exclamations or expletives in English-speaking, Christian-influenced societies.
History
The earliest use of the phrase is unknown, but in his autobiography, Mark Twain (1835–1910) observed that it was in general use even in his childhood. Twain refers to an episode from 1847, when he was working as a printer’s apprentice; Roger Smith (1994) tells the tale thus:
[Twain] recounts a practical joke a friend played on a revival preacher when Twain was an apprentice in a printing shop that Alexander Campbell, a famous evangelist then visiting Hannibal, hired to print a pamphlet of his sermon. While checking the galleys, Twain’s fellow apprentice, Wales McCormick, found he had to make room for some dropped words, which he managed by shortening Jesus Christ on the same line to J. C. As soon as Campbell had read the proofs, he swept indignantly into the shop and commanded McCormick, “So long as you live, don’t you ever diminish the Savior’s name again. Put it all in.” The puckish McCormick obeyed, and then some: he set Jesus H. Christ and printed up all the pamphlets.
Smith suggests (1994:331-2) that “Jesus H. Christ” is a specifically American profanity, and indicates that at least in his experience it is uttered primarily by men. Quinion (2009), a British author, likewise specifies the phrase as belonging to American English.
Stress pattern
Multiple authors emphasize the practice of placing a strong stress on the “H”, relating it in various ways to expletive infixation. Thus Quinion writes:
Its long survival must have a lot to do with its cadence, and the way that an especially strong stress can be placed on the H. You might also think of it as an example of emphatic infixing that loosely fits the models of words like abso-bloody-lutely or tribu-bloody-lation.
Similar remarks were made by the linguist Dwight Bolinger, who mentions “Jesus H. Christ” in a discussion of the strategies used by English speakers to add additional stresses to “highly charged words” for purposes of emphasis. Horberry suggests “The strong emphasis on the H somehow improves the rhythm of its host phrase.” The Green’s Dictionary of Slang says “the H is redundant other than for rhythm”.
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Why Do People Say “Jesus H. Christ,” and Where Did the “H” Come From?
Well, first, let us talk about where the name “Jesus Christ” comes from. The name Jesus is an Anglicized form of the Latin name Iesus, which is in turn a Latinized form of the ancient Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoũs), which is, in turn, a Hellenized form of Jesus’s original name in ancient Palestinian Aramaic, which was יֵשׁוּעַ (yēšūă‘), a shortened form of the earlier Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (y’hoshuaʿ), which means “Yahweh is Salvation.”
y’hoshuaʿ is the original Hebrew name of the hero Joshua, the central figure in the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament. Consequently, yēšūă‘ was one of the most common male given names in Judaea and Galilee during the early part of the first century CE when Jesus was alive. There are even multiple other people with the exact same name mentioned in the New Testament, including Jesus Barabbas in the Gospel of Mark and Jesus Justus, an apostle mentioned in the Book of Acts and in the Pauline Epistles.
eta
The first letter is the Greek letter iota ⟨I ι⟩, which looks like the Latin letter ⟨I⟩ and makes the [i] sound as in the word machine, or sometimes the consonantal [j] sound as in the word yellow. The second letter is the Greek letter eta, which makes the long E sound, but which looks like the Latin letter H ⟨H η⟩. The third and final letter is the lunate sigma ⟨Ϲ ϲ⟩, a form of the Greek letter sigma which looks extremely similar to the Latin letter ⟨C⟩ and makes the [s] sound as in the word soft.
These are the first three letters of the name Ἰησοῦς, the Greek spelling of the name Jesus used in the original Greek text of the New Testament. At some point, however, presumably sometime in the early 19th century, ignorant Americans who were accustomed to the Latin alphabet and who knew nothing of the Greek alphabet mistook the letters of the IHϹ monogram for the Latin letters J, H, and C. They concluded that the J must stand for “Jesus” and the C must stand for “Christ,” but then no one could figure out what the H stood for. Apparently, some people just concluded, “Hey, I guess H must be his middle initial!”
What does mean?
A reference to the Messiah of Christianity, Jesus Christ.
Jesus H. Christ is considered an expletive statement, used as a reaction to surprise, anger or excitement.
The religious figure Jesus Christ does not originally have a middle name “H.”, and using his name as a manner of profanity or offence is considered blasphemy by believers.
When people use this name, they will often put extra pressure on the “H”. Some suggest that the H stands for “holy”, while others have suggested that it stands for “Harold”.
Some even suggest that it has connection to the way “Jesus” is written with greek letters.
What’s the origin of ?
Where the phrase comes from is unknown, but even in Mark Twain’s autobiography (1835-1910), the phrase was used.
The idea of “H” standing for “holy” comes from the Christian religion that Jesus Christ is a holy figure.
Although “Harold” sounds like a somewhat random suggestion, it originates from the bible verse: “Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name”, which by the common folk and children might have been misinterpreted as “Harold be thy name”.
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How did spread?
The name is used as a profanity and exclamation phrase by native English speakers.
It can also have a humorous twist, and, as many other things, has been used in the internet meme world, especially in false references to the actual religious figure.
Jesus H. Christ mystery: Shock theory reveals origin of letter H – Where did it come from?
Jesus H. Christ is a more obscure version of the name Jesus Christ brought to wider attention in Mark Twain’s autobiography during the 19th century. The American novelist was recalling his time as a printer’s apprentice when he decided to get his revenge on old mentor from the time. He had been tasked with printing pamphlets of the sermons of Reverend Alexander Campbell. Unfortunately, the printer had dropped some letters so he abbreviated Jesus Christ to JC. He was chastised by the livid preacher who made him reset all the text so as not to “diminish” the Lord’s name. Twain obliged by simply writing Jesus H. Christ instead of Jesus Christ in humorous retaliation.
The phrase had already become known in wider circles as a mild expletive, based on the common conception that the “H” was Jesus’s middle name. But now one online theory has debunked the meaning of “H”, saying it does not mean the middle name of Jesus after all. Website MentalFloss claims the “H” is a misreading of an early motif, known as a monogram, used to represent Jesus. Monograms overlap more than one letters to create a unified symbol and were used in ancient times to denote a person’s name. Christians often used the familiar Chi Rho monogram but a less familiar one was the IHC monogram, which you can see below (will have pic). IHC used the first three letters of the Greek spelling for Jesus, Ἰησοῦς.
more recent centuries
These looked similar to Latin letters and in more recent centuries, scholars who read the Greek text mistook the I for a “J” based on the Latin alphabet. Taking ‘C’ to mean Christ, they then concluded “H” must be Jesus’s middle name. Christ is often nowadays considered to be Jesus’s last name but MentalFloss explains that is wrong. Christ is an epithet – a byline explaining a person’s characteristics – and means “anointed one”. This is believed to have happened some time in the early 19th century. And that so happens to be the period during which Mark Twain was alive.
His use of the phrase will no doubt have added to the plausibility that Jesus did in fact have a middle name.
The monogram McDaniel speaks about is “IHC.” This monogram consists of the first three letters of “Jesus” in Greek that later became confused in America with the Latin alphabet and transcribed it as “J, H, C.” With J and C standing for Jesus and Christ. However, they didn’t know what the H stood for.
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Biography of Mark Twain
The earliest evidence of the phrase “Jesus H. Christ” being used can be seen in Mark Twain’s autobiography. Mark Twain mentioned that the phrase was used commonly when he was young. In his autobiography, Twain recalls when he apprenticed to be a printer. The leader of the “Restoration Movement” Reverend Alexander Campbell ordered pamphlets for a sermon from the printer.
The printer dropped a few words and tried to avoid resetting three pages of text by abbreviating the name “Jesus Christ” to “J. C.” Reverend Campbell insisted that the printer must not diminish the Lord’s name and demanded a reprint. Annoyed by the Reverend, the printer changed the text to “Jesus H. Christ.”
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