what "suffering succotash!" meant? Made famous by good ol' Sylvester the lisping cat on Looney Tunes... Andy and the gang at his work were wondering what it meant (the conversation started off with asking about what grits were made of, then went through various types of infamously-named foods with mysterious contents)...
so I found out!
It's actually a "minced oath" -- and according to Brainy Encyclopedia -- "Minced oaths are corrupted forms of (usually religion-related) swear words that arose in English culture sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation. The censorship caused people to develop a wide variety of minced oaths to avoid swearing on holy names. They were used for swearing and other types of interjections. With time they came to have a mildly comedic effect. Since they avoid using profanities or holy words, the minced oaths are not equivalent in strength (likelihood to cause offence) as their derivitions listed below. However, some of these minced oaths should be avoided in polite speech (e.g. mofo)." (direct quote from Brainy Encyclopedia.com.
so the answer is that "Suffering Succotash!" is a minced oath of "Suffering Saviour!"
scary thing is that going down through that list of minced oaths (click on the link at the end of the quoted part) I was really convicted as a Christian about how many of those minced oaths actually come out of my mouth on occasion!
Makes you think twice...
