"djinn up"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Somewhere I picked up the idea that the "gin" in "gin up" came from
"engine".

And on consulting OED Online, I see that "engine" has several obsolete
verbal uses, beginning with this one:

 1. trans. To contrive, plan, either in a material or an immaterial sense.
Also absol. with inf. of purpose. to engine together: to frame or fit
together by art. Obs.


Now, doesn't that look like a plausible origin?

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]