Idiom
holy mackerel
Meaning
An expression of surprise.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Holy mackerel, I forgot my keys.”
“He opened the envelope and said, "Holy mackerel, I actually won the prize."”
“Holy mackerel, she whispered, staring at the test results she had not dared to hope for.”
Examples
simple
“Holy mackerel, I forgot my keys.”
contextual
“He opened the envelope and said, "Holy mackerel, I actually won the prize."”
complex
“Holy mackerel, she whispered, staring at the test results she had not dared to hope for.”
Origin
Recorded from 1803 with uncertain origin, but possibly a euphemism for Holy Mary, with Mackerel being a nickname for Catholics because they ate the fish on Fridays. Another suggested explanation is the practice of selling mackerel on Sundays in the seventeenth century (because its quality deteriorates rapidly), so it was known as holy fish.
Key words
Related idioms
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