Geez comes from a shortening of Jesus, which makes it a euphemism—a milder way of saying something that may be considered offensive, blasphemous, or harsh. Many other words like this (often called mild oaths or minced oaths) are formed in a similar way. The word gosh, for example, is an alteration of the word God.

Where does Geez language come from?

Geʿez language, also spelled Geez, liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Geʿez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal languages of Ethiopia.

Who invented geez?

It is distantly related to Sabaean, an alphabet brought to Abyssinia (ancient Ethiopia) from Arabia around the 6th century B.C. Christian Ethiopians in the 4th century A.D., intent on writing the Ge'ez language, developed the script into a distinctive syllabary, an alphabet in which each symbol represents a syllable ...