Quote:
Originally Posted by orlok
You are close. It's actually a form of "What the Devil?". Deuce (devil) is of Northern German origin, as in wat de duus?
Another form that was commonly used in the UK was "What the Dickens?" (you'd probably get a punch in the mouth if you tried it today...).
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I'll remember to hold my tongue on the Dickens. I don't like Dickens, so using it as a curse would be second-nature to me. Maybe that would earn me the fat lip?
I asked because I saw deuce used in
The Mysterious Affair at Styles and wanted to know the origin. Google was giving me too many cryptic results to narrow it down.