evidence for "gen up" rather than "gin up"

David Bergdahl einstein at FROGNET.NET
Wed Nov 6 13:45:23 UTC 2002


Brock Meeks says his usage derives from "gin" rather than "engine" or
"gen"--so if the RAF usage for "gen up" is correct, then we have two similar
phrases with different sources; in a response to an e-mail he writes:

As I learned it (from my father as a kid) and have always used it during my
writing career, I always took it to be a throwback to the Prohibition Era
days of the 1920s in which people resorted to making Gin, the alcohol, in
their bathtubs.  This of course gave rise the term "bathtub gin" but it also
took on new meaning, to "gin up" something, is, to my knowledge, to create
something outside the normal scheme of things.
________________________________
"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht"
--Albert Einstein



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