ety. of "gilligan hitch"

[Joel S. Berson]

You mean it doesn't come from "Gilligan's Island"?!

Joel

At 2/25/2009 10:07 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>HDAS has "gilligan hitch" (a chiefly nautical term for any unusual, loosely
>tied, or unreliable knot or "hitch") from 1919.
>
>I believe the following provides the etymology, if not the rationale:
>
>1879 Robert C. Adams _On Board the "Rocket"_ (Boston: D. Lathrop) 66:  The
>bunt gasket...was made fast with a knot that resisted all his efforts at
>untying, being what sailors call "an anti-gallican hitch."
>
>"Anti-gallican" means "anti-French."  If the word is not the direct origin
>of "gilligan hitch," chosen simply for its own outlandish sound (from
>the average seaman's point of view), then a loose (rather than a tight) knot
>should be a "*gallican hitch" -- one used aboard one of those absurd,
>despised, yes, _foreign_ French vessels.
>
>Also cf.: John Sykes, _Local Records; or Historical Register of Remarkable
>Events which Have Occurred in Northumberland and Durham,
>Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Berwick-upon-Tweed_ (ed. 2) Vol. I (Newcastle: J.
>Sykes, 1833), p. 315:
>
>"1779 *(March 6).*—The Anti-gallican, privateer, of Newcastle, sailed from
>Shields on a six months' cruize, against the enemies of Great Britain, being
>the first that ever sailed from that port, completely fitted and manned."
>
>JL
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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