s'elp
Also 9 swelp.
[Cf. MHG. selftir = so helfe dir.]
Contraction of ‘So help’, in the oath ‘So help me God’. Now only vulgar, often in jocularly altered forms.
| a 1330 Otuel 308 Quaþ roulond, þar he stod on grounde, ‘Selpe me gode’. Ibid. 879 Ȝef ani sarazin wiþ eie, Comeþ to lette me of mi weie, Selp me god & þis day, He sschal abugge, ȝef ich may. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg., Dead Drummer xlii, His jaw-work would never, I'm sure, s'elp me Bob, Have come for to go for to do sich a job. 1888 Kipling Soldiers Three, In Matter of a Private, Slane knelt down and murmured: ‘S'elp me, I believe 'e's dead’. |