Category: Word of the Day – G

ETYMOLOGY
from the alleged characteristics of British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, 1809-1898

EXAMPLE
“… Before the capitalist proprietors woke up to our game and cleared us out, the competition of the Star, which was immensely popular under what I may call the Fabian regime, had encouraged a morning daily, the Chronicle, to take up the run¬ nings and the Star, when it tried to go back, found that it could not do so further than to Gladstonize its party politics. …”

From: Fabian Tract No. 41
The Fabian Society: It’s Early History
By G. Bernard Shaw, 1892

ETYMOLOGY
representing Old English glomung strong feminine, from (on the analogy of ǽfning evening) glom (twilight), probably from the Germanic root glo-;
the etymological sense would thus seem to be the ‘glow’ of sunset or sunrise

EXAMPLE
“… There’s some exceptions, man an’ woman;
But this is Gentry’s life in common.
By this, the sun was out o’ sight,
An’ darker gloamin brought the night;
The bum-clock humm’d wi’ lazy drone;
The kye stood rowtin’ i’ the loan;
When up they gat, an’ shook their lugs,
Rejoic’d they were na men, but dogs;
An’ each took aff his several way,
Resolv’d to meet some ither day. …”

From: The Twa Dogs. A Tale
By Robert Burns, 1786

ETYMOLOGY
from gripe (to grasp strongly) + penny

EXAMPLE
“… Is it not “astounding” that some gripe-penny should live in squalor in order to make rich at the end of some unknown and never seen relatives in Ireland or Scotland? …”

From: The New York Times
1924-01-26: Vol 73
“The Mysterious Visitor”

ETYMOLOGY
from gin (skill, ingenuity, obs.) + -ous

EXAMPLE
” …and man’s flesh is so savoury and so pleasant that when they have taken to man’s flesh they will never eat the flesh of other beasts, though they should die of hunger. For many men have seen them leave the sheep they have taken and eat the shepherd. It is a wonderfully wily and gynnous; beast, and more false than any other beast to take all advantage, for he will never fly but a little save when he has need, for he will always abide in his strength, and he hath good breath, for every day it is needful to him, for every man that seeth him chaseth him away and crieth after him …

From: The Master of Game
By Edward, second duke of York, a1425
(The oldest English book on hunting)
Edited by Wm. A. and F. Baillie-Grohman, 1909

ETYMOLOGY
from gig (a light two-wheeled one-horse carriage) + lamp

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… A “Wo-ho-ho, my beauties!” brought the smoking wheelers upon their haunches; and Jehu, saluting with his elbow and whip finger, called out in the husky voice peculiar to a dram-drinker, “Are you the two houtside gents for Hoxfut?” To which Mr. Green replied in the affirmative; and while the luggage (the canvas-covered, ladylike look of which was such a contrast to that of the other passengers) was being quickly transferred to the coach-top, he and Verdant ascended to the places reserved for them behind the coachman. Mr. Green saw at a glance that all the passengers were Oxford men, dressed in every variety of Oxford fashion, and exhibiting a pleasing diversity of Oxford manners. Their private remarks on the two new-comers were, like stage “asides,” perfectly audible.

“Decided case of governor!” said one.

“Undoubted ditto of freshman!” observed another.

“Looks ferociously mild in his gig-lamps!” remarked a third, alluding to Mr. Verdant Green’s spectacles.

“And jolly green all over!” wound up a fourth. …”

From: The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green
By Cuthbert Bede, (real name Edward Bradley), 1853

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin genetrix, genitrix (female parent, mother; originator, creator),
from gen- stem of gignere (to beget, give birth)

EXAMPLE
“… The roundelayes, and charming lullabies,
That my indulgent genetrix did warble?
What are my braines grown dry, or my bloud cold?
Or am I on a sudden waxen old?
I thought, though Cupids aire-deviding shaft,
Soone penetrated the well tempered
Corslet: which the hot-halting god of fire,
Made for his boysterous rivall, it should not find,
Or make a way to vulnerate my mind. …”

From: Εροτοπαιγνιον (Erotopaignion), or, The Cyprian Academy
By Robert Baron, 1647

ETYMOLOGY
from grizzle (to grin or laugh [Eng. dial.]) + ???

EXAMPLE
“… Bed-blonket akether! Ha! zey zitch a word more, chell cotton thy wastecoat. Chell thong tha, chell gi’ tha zitch a strat in tha chups, ya grizzledemundy. …”

From: The Gentleman’s Magazine
Volume 16, 1746
An Exmoor Scolding; In the Propriety and Decency of Exmoor Language, between two Sisters

ETYMOLOGY
? from goose (a foolish person) + noodle (a stupid or silly person); second syllable unknown

EXAMPLE
“… for “The Maister” seldom came there until much later in the evening, when he knew he should find some of those peculiarly constituted individuals there, whom Alrina generally designated “goostrumnoodles,” and whom he seldom found much difficulty in frightening to his heart’s content. …”

From: The Wizard of West Penwith,
A Tale of the Land’s-End,
By William Bentinch Forfar, 1871

ETYMOLOGY
from gere (a wild and changeful mood; a sudden fit of passion or feeling) + -ful

EXAMPLE
“… Now vp, now doun, as boket in a welle
Right as the friday, soothly for to telle
Now it shyneth, now it reyneth faste
Right so,/kan geery Venus ouer caste
The hertes of hir folk, right as hir day
Is gereful, right so chaungeth she array
Selde is the friday, al the wowke ylike
Whan þat Arcite had songe, he gan to sike …”

From: The Ellesmere MS of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
By Geoffrey Chaucer, c1386

ETYMOLOGY
from glee (n.) + -some

EXAMPLE
“… This Smith was a quaint sire,
As merry as Bird on brier.
Iocund and gleesome at euery sith,
His countenance aye, buxome and blith,
His face full coaly and full black,
Hued like vnto a Colliers sacke,
Or as if it had been soile in the mier,
Full of wrinkles was his cheeks with the fier…”

From: The Merry Tales of the Cobler of Canterburie
Anonymous, 1590