Editing Minced oath (section)

==Acceptability==
Although minced oaths are not as strong as the expressions from which they derive, some audiences may still find them offensive. One writer in 1550 considered "idle oaths" like "by cocke" (by God), "by the cross of the mouse foot", and "by Saint Chicken" to be "most abominable blasphemy".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lund |first=J.M. |title=The Ordeal of Zeal-of-the-Land Busy: The Conflict Over Profane Swearing and the Puritan Culture of Discipline |journal=Journal of American & Comparative Cultures |volume=25 |issue=3/4 |pages=260–269 |year=2002 |doi=10.1111/1542-734x.00038}}</ref> The minced oaths "'sblood" and "zounds" were omitted from the [[First Folio|Folio]] edition of [[Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Othello]]'', probably as a result of [[Puritan]]-influenced censorship.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kermode |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Kermode |title=Shakespeare's Language |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2001 |location=New York |page=166 |isbn=0-374-52774-1}}</ref> In 1941, a [[United States federal judge]] threatened a lawyer with [[contempt of court]] for using the word "darn".<ref>{{cite book |last=Montagu |first=Ashley |title=The Anatomy of Swearing |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-8122-1764-0 |location=Philadelphia |page=298 |author-link=Ashley Montagu}}</ref> ''Zounds'' may sound amusing and archaic to the modern ear,<ref>{{cite book|last=Leland |first=Christopher T. |title=Creative Writer's Style Guide: Rules and Advice for Writing Fiction and Creative Nonfiction |publisher=Writer's Digest Books |year=2002 |location=Cincinnati, OH |page=207 |isbn=1-884910-55-6}}</ref> yet as late as 1984 the columnist [[James J. Kilpatrick]] recalled that "some years ago", after using it in print, he had received complaints that it was blasphemous because of its origin as "God's wounds".<ref>{{cite book|last=Kilpatrick |first=James J. |title=The Writer's Art |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |year=1984 |location=Fairway, Kansas |page=83 |isbn=0-8362-7925-5}}</ref> (He had written an article entitled "Zounds! Is [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] Mad?" in the ''[[Spartanburg Herald]]'' for 12 June 1973,<ref>{{cite news|last=Kilpatrick |first=James J. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19730612&id=kW4sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=r8sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4986,2022360 |newspaper=Herald-Journal |title=Zounds! Is Reagan mad |date=12 June 1973}}</ref> and also used "zounds" in June 1970.)<ref>{{cite news|last=Kilpatrick |first=James J. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19700611&id=wX4sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6MwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5354,1648469 |newspaper=Herald-Journal |title=Zounds! 5 cents a bottle |date=11 June 1970}}</ref>