to all americans?

Question

on a lot of american programmes i hear people saying what in the sam hill is going on.could you please tell me who sam hill is.

Answer 1

See the following for details:-

http://www.livinggoldpress.com/samhill.htm

Answer 2

There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate.

On the other hand, an article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford Connecticut mentioned that, “Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his stead” and a footnote queried whether this might be the source of the “popular Connecticut adjuration to ‘Give ‘em Sam Hill’?” So the tale has long legs.

The expression has been known since the late 1830s. Despite the story, it seems to be no more than a personalised euphemism for “hell”.

Answer 3

Sam Hill is an American English slang phrase, a euphemism for "Hell", or "Damn" (as in, "What in Sam Hill is that?"). Its usage dates back to at least 1839.

Its etymology is uncertain. Some have suggested that the "Sam" in the phrase derives from Samiel, the name of the Devil in Der Freischütz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber that was performed in New York in 1825. However, it may ultimately be derived from a bowdlerization or alliteration of "hell" with "hill".

A variation of the term appeared in Red vs Blue, where Sarge once exclaimed "What in Samuel Helsinki is going on here?"

Answer 4

they are pretty much trying to say what the hell is going on but in a nicer way

Answer 5

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sam1.htm