It’s the rider, not the bike

[pdedse]

Bejesus, sure. With 'beegeebers' I suspect mickey is just applying his usual PC filter to 'bejesus.'

Interesting. Ferret didn't make it up. I like words, how they develop, are used (I teach English, Spanish). I've heard / used "bejeebers" before, and always in the phrase that something "scared the bejeebers" out of me. I know I haven't used "bejesus" in the same phrase, but I think maybe I've heard it? I am from the midwest as well, and so possibly it is a regionalism.

I had to look it up, and found a site called "English Language and Usage" and there is an entry with the title: [url=https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/86868/meaning-of-bejesus-in-the-idiomatic-expression-the-bejesus-out-of#:~:text=mild%20expletive%2C%201908%2C%20perhaps%20from%20by%20Jesus.&text=As%20the%20OP%20has%20noted,preferred%20expletive%20of%20the%20Irish.]>>Meaning of “bejesus” in the idiomatic expression “… the bejesus out of …”<<

So, yep, VLJ, you spotted the connection in that "bejesus" does precede "bejeebers", and according to this site, the first time "bejeebers" appears in writing is from the '70s:

"Note the variant spelling in the quotation above. The spellings bejesus and bejeezus both first show up in 1932; bejaysus late in the same decade. The slightly more euphemistic “bejeebers out of” is much more recent; it first shows up in a letter to Time Magazine in 1973."

To me, "that scared the bejeebers out of me" sounds right--probably because I was raised in an environment that didn't accept profane language...and it could be a midwest thing.