Would the real Gordon Bennett please stand up?

The English language is the most taught and understood languages in the world and the amount of TEFL jobs out there just backs this up, but there are many aspects of it that simply baffle us and remain a mystery. When working as a TEFL teacher, just how do you explain away things like “cockney rhyming slang” or the many words and phrases that we native English speakers have been using all our lives and never really understood ourselves? You won't cover all of them in your TEFL course, and probably won't even know all the answers yourself. Well we’re trying to get to the bottom of some of these and find some answers or at least suggestions as to where these mysterious words and phrases come from, starting with the great “Gordon Bennett”! “GORDON BENNETT!” This is a synonym often used to express shock or surprise and is a tame replacement for a stronger reaction or a swear word. There are two schools of thought when it comes to the origins of this expression. Gordon Bennett is either an eponym – a person whose name is used as a synonym for something else in the English language, or simply a name that has evolved from another, more harsh word and established itself over time and generations. Is there a real Gordon Bennett from whom the saying originated? Yes, there are two in fact. The first was James Gordon Bennett, born in Scotland in 1795 and later moved to the US where he became a journalist and founded the New York Herald. The second was his son, James Gordon Bennett Jr. Both of these men were very controversial. Gordon Bennett senior was ahead of his time with tabloid tactics to get a story, famously advertising rewards for women to set up “kiss and tell” type scenarios long before such press tactics had been employed elsewhere. His son came with controversy too. After inheriting the family estate he spent a large part of his life and fortune on motor racing and hot air balloon racing. To this day there is still an air race named after the man who has been referred to as the first “international playboy” due to his indulgent lifestyle. Maybe the then shocking nature the lifestyle associated to their names is the reason it is used today as an alternative to s slightly more shocking word or phrase? As romantic as this theory sounds there are many that believe there are more plausible suggestions for its origins and slightly less fun, including Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, John Simpson. He believes “The expression is probably just a euphemistic extension of 'God!' or 'Gawd!', turned into a proper name to weaken the swear-word." The real explanation of such phrases will probably never be answered in full, but that’s is part of the charm of the English language. With localised dialects, slang and phrases the language will continue to grow and evolve in time and who knows, you may be the next Gordon Bennett or Flaming Nora!