Odds bodkins

Odds bodkins is an archaic English minced oath of the Middle Ages and later.

Odds bodkins is generally considered to probably be a euphemism for "God's body"[1] (or possibly "God's dear body"),[2] although "God's dagger"[2] or "God's [crucifixion] nails"[3] has also been suggested as a possible source, as "bodkin" was current in the Middle Ages as a term for many small sharp implements: bodkin point, a narrow armor-piercing arrowhead; bodkin needle; dagger,[4] stilleto or "nail dagger";[5] an awl-like leather-punching device;[1] and a slim pointed multiple-use women's accessory[6] (although this use may have come later).

Hamlet uses the term to describe a dagger in his "To be, or not to be" soliloquy (c. 1599), in which he says "When he himself might his quietus [death] make, with a bare bodkin?

[9] There are many variants of spelling and form, such as ods bodikin, odsbodikins, odds bud, oddsbud, gadsbodikins,adsbud, 'sbodikins, and others.

One known instance of "bidowe" occurred in Piers Plowman where it probably meant "dagger" and could possibly be related.