Quote:from the perspective of medieval Europe, “God’s liver” is more suggestive than “goat’s liver”. In DWB we find some interesting context examples, such as:

“dasz euch pox leber schend!”
“pox marter!”
“pox glück, schau wie der stattknecht hauffen // mit latern dort auffer lauffn!”

etc.

It appears that the reference to “pox” and expressions like “pox something” - this "something" being anatomic objects (pox leber – God’s liver, pox pauch – God’s stomach, pox haut – God’s skin, pox grind – God’s scab), corpse (pox leichnam), passions (pox leiden, pox marter) etc., – represent the natural element of the medieval European culture: blasphemous swear. The doctoral thesis of Gerd Schwerhoff [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.], section 4.1.4, provides insight into this cultural phenomenon and numerous examples from “Fastnachtsspielen”. Schwerhoff also includes an example from Rabelais: “...po cab de bious, das dich gots leiden shend, pote de Christo…” (Gargantua & Pantagruel, vol. I, chapter 17), which vividly illustrates its international nature (note that “pox” is ultimately “gots”). I guess that “holy shit” is of the same family.