# Origin of phrase: "gin up" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364 "2004-10-21T07:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/21 "2011-04-29T21:05:59Z")
The first time I heard it, I thought it was “gen up” and that it was slang for “generate.” ---
**Author:** ![asktog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@asktog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asktog)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/22 "2013-02-04T23:44:02Z")
“Gin up” is a verb and particle, the “up,” of course, playing the part of the particle, a part of speech of which I’ve always been particularly fond. It may well be that “gin up” is derived from “engine,” but what engine? Perhaps from the original one-horsepower engine, a.k.a., the horse: If you want to get a good price for an aging horse, you have to come up with a good story, and the best way to support that story is to [“ginger up” or “gin up”](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gin) your horse by slipping a bit of ginger up its fundament. Your old mare will come to life and prance around lively as a filly for that critical period between your customer’s arrival and the time the money changes hands. Occam’s razor might suggest it be more likely that the established phrase, “ginger up,” having, through common use, already contracted to “gin up,” would then transfer whole and complete from horse trading to politics and beyond, rather than a new “gin” being generated from a corruption of “generate” or plucked out of the center of “engine,” only to have a coincidentally duplicate “up” particle glued to its end. But, then [Hickam’s Dictum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hickam's_dictum) could possibly prove germane, given that humans are involved, so all bets are off. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/23 "2013-02-05T00:36:45Z")
I wonder if anyone’s considered that it might be related to the cotton gin. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/24 "2013-02-05T01:30:10Z")
The way the expression has been used by politicos over the last few years, I assumed it meant using rhetoric (like gin) to intoxicate your followers into making a fuss over nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/25 "2013-02-05T02:05:43Z")
I’ve often heard the terms “ginning around” (meaning mucking around) and “gin show” (meaning a poorly organised event). I suspected those phrases came from the offensive use of the word gin to describe an aboriginal woman. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/26 "2013-02-05T18:30:13Z")
Derivation from engine seems the most plausible. It was indeed originally used for all sorts of contrivances and contraptions. Note that early gunpowder weapons – including bombs – were referred to as _infernal engines_. (Infernal=associated with flame, smoke, sulfur.) “Gen up” I’ve never heard or encountered. “Ginger up” as a source for “gin up” _feels_ like folk/false etymology, off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/27 "2013-02-05T18:42:17Z")
Off the top of my head, I took “gin up” to be short for “engineer up”, not engine. When crafting a mechanical solution aren’t we engaged in the most basic of engineering? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/28 "2013-02-05T19:17:05Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Off the top of my head, I took “gin up” to be short for “engineer up”, not engine. When crafting a mechanical solution aren’t we engaged in the most basic of engineering? That’s what the people (myself included) citing engine intend – engineer is derived from engine, same thing effectively. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/29 "2013-02-06T17:58:53Z")
By engine you intend engineer? wouldn’t it have been better, certainly more clear, to add the two letters to indicate the entirely different idea of a thinking, active human being capable of designing and creating a device rather than an unthinking machine unable to devise anything at all and leaving us with such as “I engined up substitute transport.” which to all appearances indicates an engine was added to a trtansportation device. I guess it couls be, but it doesn’t sound reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/30 "2013-02-06T18:27:46Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > By engine you intend engineer? > > wouldn’t it have been better, certainly more clear, to add the two letters to indicate the entirely different idea of a thinking, active human being capable of designing and creating a device rather than an unthinking machine unable to devise anything at all and leaving us with such as “I engined up substitute transport.” which to all appearances indicates an engine was added to a trtansportation device. > > I guess it couls be, but it doesn’t sound reasonable to me. No, by “engine” I meant “the root word from which all engine-derived words were derived.” My years of Latin have given me the (possibly bad) habit of looking for the root word and assuming anyone I’m talking to can figure out minor variations; I just say “res publica (things public) is the root word for republic” rather than worrying about what declension I should specify. And the _engineer_ in this case is not exactly a “thinking, active human being capable of designing and creating a device,” since I meant the verb “to engineer [something].” ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/31 "2013-02-06T20:32:44Z")
> [@mks57](#): > > There is a device called a gin pole that is used to hoist and mount an antenna on top of a tower. I don’t know where the name came from. In Oklahoma where I grew up, we called an A Frame Hoist/Wench & Pully a Jin or Gin truck. To me Gin up means to put some extra effort into it (like using a wench) to get it done. Like “Man Up!” From [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com): gin [jin] noun, any of various machines employing simple tackle or windlass mechanisms for hoisting. Origin: 1150–1200; Middle English gyn, aphetic variant of Old French engin engine ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/32 "2013-02-06T20:38:47Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > To me Gin up means to put some extra effort into it (like using a wench) to get it done. I always give it my all when using a wench. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/33 "2013-02-06T20:55:59Z")
Can’t figure out whether it was “winch” or “wrench” that was meant. Could be either I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/34 "2013-02-06T21:01:58Z")
I think y’all are skipping the obvious reference to the _card game_ Gin, in which cards are traded back and forth until you get the right combination to finish out the game. In much the same way, “ginning up” means to futz around with what you’ve got on hand until your’e satisfied with the results. ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/35 "2013-02-06T21:04:09Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > “Gen up” I’ve never heard or encountered. It’s a very common expression in the UK …to “gen up” on something means to acquire as much information as possible about whatever it is that you need to "gen up " on … ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/36 "2013-02-06T23:06:35Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The way the expression has been used by politicos over the last few years, I assumed it meant using rhetoric (like gin) to intoxicate your followers into making a fuss over nothing. I had a similar misapprehension. I always thought the phrase referred to embellishing a story to make it more palatable, or perhaps adding useless components to a device (like an electronic prototype) to make it seem more functional. One might have the same effect by serving your guests enough gin. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364/37 "2013-02-07T00:19:46Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The first time I heard it, I thought it was “gen up” and that it was slang for “generate.” Likewise for me. I always heard it in context of developing software, where it seems plausible and natural to say “gen(erate) up” a small script or program. (Which almost certainly means this is an invalid folk etymology). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-gin-up/270364.md?page=1)