<P> 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 . </P> <P> Candidate referents for the use date back to at least the 19th century . The following are possibilities of the term's origin . </P>

Where does the phrase sam hill come from