Zounds! The Ancestor of Swear Words

Back when we read Othello using the Folger’s edition, our group encountered a peculiar word: “Zounds.” We found that this word was omitted from our Norton. After some research on the Oxford English Dictionary, we found that the origin of zounds comes from the phrase “By God’s Wounds,” a biblical phrase. The purpose of the word still eluded us however. For this blog post I wanted to figure out what this word was used for exactly and I found that there are several similar words used in Othello that known as Soldier’s Oaths:

‘Sblood = By Christ’s blood (shed for the salvation of humankind)

Zounds = By God’s wounds (suffered for the sins of humankind)

‘Fore God = In front of God’s face

Diablo = By the devil

By’r Lady = By Our Lady (the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus)

‘Ud’s pity = God’s pity (Divine Mercy being the only reason that anyone is saved)

These words are basically the renaissance equivalent of our modern swear words, often used to express shock or disgust. The character’s in Othello were all lower to mid-ranked soldiers of Venice who travel to Cyprus by ship. This leads me to think of the phrase “swearing like a sailor.” It makes me wonder if this play was a little racy due to the frequent use of these “oaths.” Would Othello been rated R at the time for not only the violent acts but also the language? It is somewhat comforting to know that profanity isn’t a unique aspect of the past century. In a way it sort of humanizes the characters and the people of the time. It makes me wonder why the Norton decided to take some of these out of the play when all it would have taken is a small footnote for a reader to understand. Surely it cannot be to preserve a sense of properness in Shakespeare’s plays when every other line is a hidden sex joke. Whatever the reason, I now have a few more interesting curses in my repertoire for when I want to swear and add a dash of timeless class.

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