egad, int.
(ɪˈgæd)
Also 7 igad, 8 egod.
[prob. representing earlier A God! from a interjection: but in later times perhaps associated with asseverations, like i'faith, or possibly with by God: cf. agad, adad, adod, ecod, etc.]
Used as a softened oath.
| 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 4 Which is very civil I gad. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxv. 323 An exclamation of ‘Humbugged egad!’ 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. xviii. (1809) 140 Egod, off we set, and never stopt till I got to the bottom. 1823 Byron Island ii. xxi, Egad! she seem'd a wicked-looking craft. 1868–9 M. E. Braddon Charlotte's Inher. iv. ii. 93 Yes, egad, and such a fortune as few girls drop into now-a-days. |