"guy" used by teens?

[Jonathan Lighter]

My guess is that "guy" was indeed probably ambiguous into the 1890s.  George Ade's "Artie" (1896) uses it frequently as a synonym for "fellow."  Stephen Crane's "Maggie, A Girl of the Streets" (1892) doesn't. (The former is set in Chicago, the latter in NYC.)

I've never seen it in a Civil War letter, BTW.

And Jim - the word "dude" in Jane Austen ?   Not possible.

JL

"Patti J. Kurtz" <kurtpatt4 at NETSCAPE.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Patti J. Kurtz"
Subject: Re: "guy" used by teens?
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douglas at NB.NET wrote:

>>
>>
>
>This is of course not exactly the same "guy" = "chap"/"fellow" used today
>(HDAS sense 2), but rather the ancestral "guy" = "grotesque person" or so
>(HDAS sense 1) which I believe has been obsolete in the US for almost 100
>years.
>
>
Which raises the question for me of whether, if someone referred to
another person as a "guy" in, say 1899, which meaning would the word
have? HDAS lists the first meaning of "guy" with cites up into the 20th
century and the 2nd meaning (fellow) as early as the 1870's.

So does that mean both meanings were current during the 1890's? So if a
character thought of someone else as a "guy," the meaning could be
ambiguous?

Maybe I'd better stick with "boys." Or am I making too much of this?


Patti

>-- Doug Wilson
>
>

--

Freeman - And what drives you on, fighting the monster?



Straker - I don't know, something inside me I guess.



Freeman - It's called dedication.



Straker - Pig-headedness would be nearer.


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