Sam Hill (euphemism)
Sam Hill is an American English slang phrase, a euphemism or minced oath for "the devil" or "hell" personified (as in, "What in the Sam Hill is that?"). Etymologist Michael Quinion and others date the expression back to the late 1830s; they and others consider the expression to have been a simple bowdlerization, with, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an unknown origin.
Read more about Sam Hill (euphemism): Possible Referents
Famous quotes containing the words sam and/or hill:
“I can’t hide it any longer. I love you. It’s the old story, boy meets girl—Romeo and Juliet—Minneapolis and St. Paul!”
—Robert Pirosh, U.S. screenwriter, George Seaton, George Oppenheimer, and Sam Wood. Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx)
“What rein can hold licentious wickedness
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)