GregB, 'Strewth, is supposed to come from God's truth, so similar to zounds, etc.

What about the cartoon expression: Curses!

It reminds me of the line in one of DH Lawrence's novels, Lady Chatterley I think. He wrote something to the effect of making love/having sex is like a row of asterixes across a page. He was referring to the censorship of his novels, where the censors would replace written passages with a row of asterixes, so by referring to that he was effectively telling his readers to imagine the part of the story that was being censored whenever they saw those asterixes.

So saying the word "Curses!" is doing the same thing, allowing the audience to imagine what would really have been said.

I have a really interesting book by Nancy Keesing called Lily on the Dustbin, which is about the sayings which are considered okay in family settings but which have implied meanings. They aren't all swear words.

My favourite saying from the book is "as scarce as rocking horse poo". It makes me laugh everytime I hear it, or say it. I remember when I was working in the library and I was answering a phone enquiry about a specific car manual, and I said that manuals for that brand of car were "as scare as rocking ... horse.. er.." and the customer said, "shit?" I apologised and said I wasn't supposed to say things like that to customers. He laughed.

I'll have to hunt my Keesing book out and see what else it can contribute to this thread.

Helen