The more common spelling of the word is “gyp,” which is generally agreed to be derived from Gypsy. It appeared in American English before British English. The spelling “gip” isn’t as common:
Carol Higgins Clark’s books all have titles with a one syllable past particle of a verb. There was a small uproar over GYPPED. I find the word offensive and tell people its origin when they use it.
I once used the word shiksa in front of my boss, an Hassidic Jew. He told me the origin and said not to use it in the store, as many Jews find it offensive to women. I agreed.
The related word sarcophagus literally means “flesh-eater”.
Well, yes and no. The word, as it’s used (here in the US, at least) is often seen as a slur. Catch is, it’s derived from the word ‘Egyptian’; Egypt being where many believed the Roma ultimately came from (it probably wasn’t; the usual thought is now northwestern India). The victims of using the slur, then, are the Roma; the victims of refusing to, on the other hand, are the Egyptians.
This is what happens when you put Joseph Heller in charge of the language.
The phrase “Indian summer” has the same idea as “Indian giver”: being given something nice and then having it taken back.
Ironic, considering America’s history with the native peoples.
Gyp, barbarian and Indian giver aren’t in theme asked for in the OP at all. Those are insulting words and it’s no shock that they have offensive etymologies.
Jazz originated in New Orleans Jazz houses, a shortened word from jism.
Right. Bad, Bless, and Filibuster are good examples of what I’m looking for.
Have a cite for that one?
“Rock ‘n’ roll” was originally a euphemism for sex.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about “jazz”:
That certainly puts a different spin on the Michael Jackson song!
It is interesting that “bad” eventually came to be used as a slang term meaning not only the opposite of the standard modern meaning (something good or stylish) but also the opposite of the Old English root (impressively tough/menacing). I was surprised to learn from the OED just now that this slang usage is older than I would have guessed; “bad” was used to mean “good” by around the turn of the last century, and was used to mean “dangerous, but in a ‘cool’ way” by 1940.
I was a bit skeptical of the etymology of “bulldoze” quoted in the OP, but the OED also says that the term originally referred to a severe or “bull’s dose” of flogging. Hundreds of lashes may be an exaggeration, but one of the 19th century quotes in the OED says “To ‘bull-dose’ a negro in the Southern States means to flog him to death, or nearly to death.”
That’s really interesting!
Well, I folk-etymologied it as from “gypsy,” but Wiktionary doesn’t seem to think that’s certain. It could be from “Egypt,” it’s been in English usage for a while.
I can vouch for that. When I was in Québec a year and a half ago, we watched a lot of news. The first time in that text crawl at the bottom of the screen I saw something like, “Deux homes sont blessés sur l’autoroute 20…”, it really threw me for a loop. I pulled out my dictionary, flipped through, and exclaimed, “Wounded? Blessé means wounded?”
I don’t think so.
The origin is somewhat obscure, but it’s my understanding that the most likely meaning is this–in centuries past, armies would typically fight only from late spring into early fall. During the winter, they went into winter quarters and did not fight at all. The early colonists, once fall had arrived, could rest easy, because they knew that the Indians wouldn’t be attacking for a while. But in years with an Indian Summer, the Indians might be lured back onto the warpath by the unseasonably warm weather.
Maybe. But because of the fact that in Indian Summer, Giver and Rubber, “Indian” means false or esatz I’ve always felt there must be some common connection. Never seen anything to back me up on that though. Lol.
foolsguinea writes:
> Well, I folk-etymologied it as from “gypsy,” but Wiktionary doesn’t seem to think
> that’s certain. It could be from “Egypt,” it’s been in English usage for a while.
The gypsies (i.e., the Roma) were so called because some people thought that they came from Egypt (whereas really they came from India). Later, because they were considered (rightly or wrongly) to often be thieves and scammers, to cheat someone financially was called to “gyp” them. “Gipsies” and “gip” are alternate spellings of those words:
Flyer writes:
> The origin is somewhat obscure, but it’s my understanding that the most likely
> meaning is this–in centuries past, armies would typically fight only from late
> spring into early fall. During the winter, they went into winter quarters and did not
> fight at all. The early colonists, once fall had arrived, could rest easy, because they
> knew that the Indians wouldn’t be attacking for a while. But in years with an
> Indian Summer, the Indians might be lured back onto the warpath by the
> unseasonably warm weather.
There are several possible etymologies for the term, and that is one of the more unlikely ones:
“Snack” and “snot” are cognates – they share a common origin.
“Indian rubber,” more properly “India rubber” refers to the genuine caoutchouc from Asia, freshly tapped from tropical trees. It doesn’t get any more real rubber than that. When the Soviets did not have a reliable source of caoutchouc and had not yet the capacity to make synthetic rubber, they found a solution in the hardy wild dandelion from the steppes of Central Asia and from Tien Shan mountain valleys, Taraxacum kok-saghyz. The name kök sağız is Kazakh and means ‘root latex’. So kok-saghyz would be a better synonym for “not real rubber.”
I don’t know what you meant by “Indian rubber” but this is what I understand by it.
Nothing indicates that the Ḥashshāshīn really took hashish.