What's In A Word?

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Jesus Tiberius Christ

The "H" initial was probably jokingly taken from from the Greek epigram for Christ's name, IHS or IHC. The H stands for the Greek letter eta. The phrase "Jesus H. Christ" dates to the 1890s.

The combination of religion and "funny names" makes this subject rather inappropriate for AFU.

True: Lord knows, there're lots of variations of the middle initials/names for "Jesus H. Christ."

True: ...like Haploid/hermaphrodite/Harold/etc. If you must, post it to rec.humor.

References:

• Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Vol. II