An archaic exclamation or oath, possibly a euphemistic alteration of 'by God' or a corruption of 'begorra'.
Likely from by God with sound changes, or possibly from Irish English. Related to 'begorra' and other archaic oaths. May be a back-formation or corruption.
This word shows how people created euphemistic oaths by distorting 'God' into unrecognizable forms to avoid directly taking the Lord's name in vain—'begod,' 'begorra,' and similar exclamations were clever linguistic workarounds to religious rules.
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