"Great Scott!" is an interjection of surprise, amazement, or dismay. It is a distinctive but inoffensive exclamation, popular in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, and now considered dated. It originates as a minced oath, historically associated with two specific "Scotts", notably Scottish author Sir Walter Scott and somewhat later in the United States, US general Winfield Scott.
Origins
It is frequently assumed that Great Scott! is a minced oath of some sort, Scott replacing God. The 2010 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English labels the expression as "dated" and simply identifies it as an "arbitrary euphemism for Great God!". Alternatively, but similarly, it has been suggested that it may be a corruption of the Austrian greeting Grüß Gott. In keeping with the Victorian-era origin of the phrase, it is sometimes anecdotally associated with Albert, Prince Consort.
An early reference to Sir Walter Scott as the "great Scott" is found in a poem entitled "The Wars of Bathurst 1830" published in The Sydney Monitor on 27 October 1830 ; the pertinent line reading "Unlike great Scott, who fell at Waterloo", in reference to Scott's poorly-received The Field of Waterloo An explicit connection of Sir Walter Scott's name with the by-then familiar exclamation is found in a poem published 15 August 1871, on the centenary anniversary of Scott's birth: Mark Twain also uses the phrase to reference Sir Walter Scott and his writing. Twain's disdain for Scott is evident in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, in which the main character repeatedly utters "great Scott" as an oath, and in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where he names a sinking boat the Walter Scott.
Winfield Scott
, in Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty reports the exclamation as referring to Winfield Scott, general‑in‑chief of the U.S. Army from 1841 to 1861: The general, known to his troops as Old Fuss and Feathers, weighed 300 pounds in his later years and was too fat to ride a horse. A May 1861 edition of The New York Times included the sentence: The phrase also appears in a 3 May 1864 diary entry by Private Robert Knox Sneden : In the July 1871 issue of The Galaxy, in the story "Overland", the expression is again used by author by J. W. DeForest:
Later usage
The phrase has the ring of being somewhat "dated," suggestive of the 19th century or generally an old-fashioned minced oath. 20th century publications frequently use it to suggest such a context, as, for example, in the Rathbone–Bruce Sherlock Holmes films, Silver Age comics, the television series Dennis the Menace, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Murder, She Wrote said by Leslie Nielsen, and the Back to the Future films. It was also said in A Christmas Story as Ralphie is in line to see Santa Claus, and in the episode "When The Rat's Away, The Mice Will Play" from the Batman TV show, said by Adam West. It also was used in the first episode of Blackadder Goes Forth by Hugh Laurie. Scrooge McDuck uses it in DuckTales Remastered. It is also used in "The Laughing Fish", an episode of , by a one-time character voiced by George Dzundza when The Joker enters his office. The Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill, quips, "Actually I'm Irish." In Half-Life 2, Dr. Kleiner says it when he first sees Gordon Freeman in the game. In The Office episode "Valentine's Day", Michael Scott uses the phrase "Great Scott!" at the end of his home-made "The Faces of Scranton" video. "Great Scott Film Industries" is the name of his imaginary film company, and the logo includes a lightning bolt and a headshot of Steve Martin and Robin Williams. The phrase is said by Doc Spencer at the end of Danny the Champion of the World, by Aunt Sponge in James and the Giant Peach and by Miss Trunchbull in Matilda. It was also used in Legends of Tomorrow by Dr. Martin Stein, in Peter Pan 2 by Captain Hook, and in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by Gilderoy Lockhart. A large basalt rock collected by astronaut David Scott on the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971 is informally known as Great Scott.
