Origin of the word "Gizmo" (was Origin of the word "Tantrum")

Tue Nov 28 23:16:28 UTC 2006

My first unforgettable conscious awareness of this word came in 1958 when I scanned a newsstand copy of Murray Leinster's 1958 sf novel, _War with the Gizmos_ (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Gold Medal).  Said Gizmos were unstoppable gas-blob thingies that attacked Earth from Space.

  JL

Michael Adams <madams1448 at AOL.COM> wrote:
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Subject: Re: Origin of the word "Gizmo" (was Origin of the word "Tantrum")
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I haven't a clue about the etymology of "gizmo," but I wonder if anyone else (Barry, particularly) has ever encountered it as a food term? In eastern Pensylvania, perhaps in Philadelphia and associated New Jersey, too, a "gizmo" was a sandwich shop item, half hamburger and half ham sandwich -- or maybe I should say whole hamburger and whole ham sandwich, but what I really mean is equal parts hamburger and ham sandwich. I decided after I ate my first and only one, that it was meant for those who couldn't get enough meat or salt from any other sandwich on offer.

Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: Origin of the word "Gizmo" (was Origin of the word "Tantrum")

Any new suggested etymologies for "gizmo/ gismo" ? OED and HDAS are both at a

loss.

The OED entry (unlike another I might name) obscures the fact that the word

first came to prominence in the U.S. naval services (perhaps especially in the

Pacific) during WWII. It doesn't seem to appear in any pre-war glossaries of

Annapolis slang, for example.

I'd suggest looking at Chinese, Tagalog, or another Pacific Rim language.

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" wrote:

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>Unknown?

Unknown to me anyway, and apparently to the modern dictionaries.

-- Doug Wilson

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