so help me God
English
Alternative forms
- so help me, so help me Bob, so help me cat, so help me tater, so help me tatur
Phrase
so help me God
- Used as an oath, a promise that an action will be carried out
- 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
- I waited — not to share the booty, for, so help me God and Saint Withold! as neither I nor any of mine will touch the value of a liard, — I waited but to render my thanks to thee and to thy bold yeomen, for the life and honour ye have saved.
- 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer; Nevill Coghill, transl., “Wife of Bath's Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977:
- He came up close and kneeling gently down
He said, "My love, my dearest Alison,
So help me God, I never again will hit
You, love; and if I did, you asked for it.
- 1971, Johnson, Lyndon, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, LCCN 74-102146, OCLC 1067880747, page 15:
- At approximately 2:40 p.m. Central Standard Time Malcolm Kilduff held a dictating machine in front of us (a tape recorder was not available) and I repeated the oath of office after Judge Hughes:
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.
- 2008, James Slater, Like Phosphorescent Desert Buttons, page 98:
- “You try it Mister, and so help me God I will make sure you spend the rest of your non-adult life bouncing off the mattressy walls of a psych ward.”
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:so help me God.
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Translations
phrase used as a promise that an action will be carried out
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See also
- there but for the grace of God go I