Modified oaths, invented (like “I SWAN”) by the youth of New England. See 1852.

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1785.  

        Ye yanking lads of our town, ye
Are brave fellows all, I vowne,
See our great banging freedom pole,
It is a gent one, ’tis by jole.
And when we look on ’pon this tree,
We all must dreadful mindful be
That we must fight for liberty,
And vum we’ll ’fend it, if we die.
Mass. Spy, Oct. 13.    

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1790.  In one village you will hear the phrase “I snore,”—in another, “I swowgar,”—and in another, “I van you, I wunt do it.”—Id., Dec. 30.

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1802.  He vows, in Yankee phrase.—Sportsman, n.d.

4

1809.  

        Next Nelly sat down on her stool,
  And streamed it from the cow;
At milking she was not a fool,—
  She froth’d the milk,—I vow.
Mass. Spy, July 5.    

5

1824.  

        They covered the types with paper,
Then pulled,—I van, ’twas a squeezer.
Woodstock (Vt.) Observer, Feb. 24: from The N.H. Patriot.    

6

1839.  “Is it possible this is you?” “I rather guess it is,” says I, but I vum I cant contrive who you be.”—‘Major Jack on board a Whaler,’ Havana (N.Y.) Republican, Aug. 21.

7

1848.  

        I thought thet gold-mines could be gut cheaper than Chiny asters,
An’ see myself acomin’ back like sixty Jacob Astor’s;
But sech idees soon melted down an’ did n’t leave a grease-spot;
I vow my holl sheer o’ the spiles would n’t come nigh a V spot.
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ No. 8.    

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1852.  Would my father and mother [in Vermont] allow any of their children to say “Darn it”? Were they ever allowed to say “I vow”? No. If we had said either of these words, we should have been whipped for it.—Brigham Young, Aug. 15: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ vi. 290.

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1854.  I veow! they kept snakin’ an’ snakin’ (the hogs) in an’ up through the scuttle, jist in a continual stream.—N.Y. Spirit of the Times, n.d.

10

a. 1854.  “I vum” is just the same in spirit as “I vow”; and a “diabolical falsehood” is perfectly synonymous with a “devilish lie.”—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iii. 265.

11

1858.  See, I TELL YOU.

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