A minced oath is a euphemistic expression formed by deliberately misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo word or phrase to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics. An example is "gosh" for "God",[1] or fudge for fuck.[2]
Many languages have such expressions. In the English language, nearly all profanities have minced variants.[3]