contexts: Sam Hill is an American English slang phrase , a euphemism or minced oath for `` the devil '' or `` hell '' personified ( as in , `` What in the Sam Hill is that ? '' ) . Etymologist Michael Quinion and others date the expression back to the late 1830s ; they and others consider the expression to have been a simple bowdlerization , with , according to the Oxford English Dictionary , an unknown origin .
name: Sam Hill (euphemism)
answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: simple bowdlerization
questions.input_text: where does what in the sam hill come from