more on "gen up" and "gin up"

[David Bergdahl]

from the website of Telephone Bar & Grill, 149 Second St, NY:
http//www.telebar.com/britspeak.html

"Gen means information. If you have the gen then you know what is going on.
Also, to 'gen up' is to research a subject or to get some information about
something."  [ENTRIES AND DEFINITIONS BY MIKE ETHERINGTON FROM HIS SMASHING
BOOK, THE VERY BEST OF BRITISH: THE AMERICAN'S GUIDE TO SPEAKING BRITISH]

However, The Las Vegas Review Journal [online edition] for July 30, 2002 has
this in an editorial:

"Just months removed from placing tariffs on steel imports to protect a
failing domestic industry and gin up a few votes in the Rust Belt, President
Bush's commitment to free trade merits scrutiny."

>From Google cites, British "Gen up" seems to originate in computerspeak--the
next generation software will have new features, hence to innovate = to gen
up something.   The sense of "research" may come naturally out of this
usage; the American usage may just be a ten/tin homophony at play.  Or it
may be independently derived from the "gin" of cotton gin--the original
"engine."

An MSNBC article by Brock N. Meeks for 7/30/01 has "You don't have to be a
science fiction or mystery writer to gin up some nightmare scenarios about
how these new intrusions into our lives can be abused by law enforcement
officials."   Google searches reveal a number of news and entertainment
sources using the "gin up" spelling.
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"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht"
--Albert Einstein