Tudor & Stuart · oath · interjection
odsbodikins
odz-BOD-i-kinzpronunciation given by a dictionary
First recordedc. 1600 (as “God's bodykins”)
An archaic exclamation of surprise. It is usually explained as softening 'God's body': 'ods' disguises 'God's' and 'bodikins' is a pet form of 'body' (Farmer & Henley: 'God's little body'). A minority view reads 'bodkins' as the nails of the Cross.
Where it was first recorded
William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1600), in the half-softened form “God's bodykins”; the fuller 'ods' spelling is later (the OED's earliest evidence is 1677, Thomas Otway; Phrase Finder cites Fielding, Don Quixote in England, 1734)
Also spelled: ods bodikins, odds bodkins, ods bodikin, God's bodykins, gadsbodikins, 'sbodikins
In its own time
God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
Today
Modern exampleOdsbodikins, the printer has jammed again!
Fine to use today only as a deliberately antique, comic exclamation.
Once a genuinely blasphemous oath (swearing by Christ's body); now a mild, comic archaism.
Questions
What does odsbodikins mean?
An archaic exclamation of surprise. It is usually explained as softening 'God's body': 'ods' disguises 'God's' and 'bodikins' is a pet form of 'body' (Farmer & Henley: 'God's little body'). A minority view reads 'bodkins' as the nails of the Cross.
When was odsbodikins first used?
It is first recorded c. 1600 (as “God's bodykins”) — William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1600), in the half-softened form “God's bodykins”; the fuller 'ods' spelling is later (the OED's earliest evidence is 1677, Thomas Otway; Phrase Finder cites Fielding, Don Quixote in England, 1734).
Can you still use odsbodikins today?
Fine to use today only as a deliberately antique, comic exclamation.
Sources
- Slang and its Analogues, vol. V (1902), s.v. ODS — J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley (archive.org)
- odsbodikins — Merriam-Webster
- Odds Bodkins — The Phrase Finder (phrases.org.uk)
- ods bodikins — Wiktionary
- Hamlet (full text) — The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, MIT
Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: rare — genuine, but marked rare, obsolete or archaic, or seldom recorded, in the dictionaries listed above