More on "gunther" - "gun thug"

[Joel S. Berson]

Ben, if not "gun thug", what is your supposition about
etymology?  (Perhaps, as I wondered earlier, from "gangsta"?)

On the other hand: in your citations, the New Jersey regionality, the
use in association with "a guido", and the seeming application to
females (bitch, mother, mother and cuzin, "ask danielle, i explained
it to her [insulted her with it?] as well", often in apposition to
the father "a guido" -- do they suggest an origin from Italian, and
from a female proper name?

Joel

At 7/14/2006 09:05 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On 7/14/06, Mircea Sauciuc <msauciuc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>One suggestion on "your mother's a gunther" was "gun thug."  A search on
>>"gun thug" got me thinking on how "your mother's a gunther" was used.
>>First, here is something I found through a Google search on "gun thug."
>>
>>Basil, the head gun thug, put a gun into one of the black miners', Bill
>>Worthington's, belly, pushed him into the bushes.
>>
>>Here is the rap  in context:
>>
>>just call my name and I'm gonna confroncha-
>>youz a lame and yo motha's a guntha
>>I'll beat her and puncha
>>Leave her bleedin' and punctured
>>Nigga I'll take yo newborn daughter and punt-uh
>>
>>So maybe it's not an insult in the sense that it's something equivalent to
>>"your mother's a dumb bitch," but rather she is someone who is supposed to
>>be in a position of power but I'll still "beat her down."
>
>I doubt there's any connection to "gun thug" -- "guntha" looks more
>like an all-purpose putdown. You can find plenty of examples on
>MySpace, where it seems localized to northern New Jersey. For
>starters, try:
>
>http://google.com/search?q=+site:myspace.com+guntha|gunthas
>
>A sampling:
>
>---
>guntha ass guido bitch lol!! i love yah man!! oh yeah beach tomorrow
>G! U 5Uk A55 GUN+hA NiGg@ "trying to wirte like a guntha lol"
>---
>yo bitch why u be looking like a guntha lol sike nah i love u dan the man
>---
>naw chill biscuit, yo momma and your cuzin a guntha and your dad is a
>guido, but you, you iz wack, you know why? cause u iz a chop.
>---
>damn yo you stay hatin, thats why you momma guntha, now go cook some
>dinner, me and the kids is hungry
>---
>well anyways, why you always take sooo damn long to respond with your
>guntha ass self? dont worry you can ask me what a guntha is if you
>dont know, or ask danielle, i explained it to her as well ;
>---
>naw chill with that shit , yous a guntha and thats it , deal with it ,
>yo hoish ass , you cant be a guido like me
>---
>
>
>Surprisingly, "guntha" has not yet generated an urbandictionary.com
>entry, but I'm sure there will be one soon.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org