"gink"?

[Garson O'Toole]

The link below points to a book in GB titled "English far and wide: a
festschrift for Inna Koskenniemi …" The word chink is used instead of
gink, and the annotation [money] is given. The snippet GB displays
shows the relevant text.

His mill I rattled round, I ground his grits [millstones] so clean;
I eased him of his chink [money] in gathering broom so green.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AkYRAQAAMAAJ&q=chink#search_anchor


The GB book "Sing out, Volume 38" also uses chink and says that "chink
is money."

http://books.google.com/books?id=lY8JAQAAMAAJ&q=%22his+chink%22#search_anchor
http://books.google.com/books?id=lY8JAQAAMAAJ&q=chink#search_anchor

I make no claims about the quality of information in these books.


On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "gink"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A traditional bawdy ballad "The Besom Maker" contains the two verses =
> below; the narrator (since that's the term we've decided to adopt, faute =
> de mieux) is a young (or, as it develops, at least still fertile) woman =
> who makes besoms (brooms) out of broom or twigs.
>
> http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=3D5896
> [same lyrics as performed by Lucky Bags on their "Delight in Disorder" =
> CD]
>
>
> One day as I was roving, over the hills so high,
> I met with a rakish squire, all with a rolling eye;
> He tipp'd to me the wink, I wrote to him the tune,
> I eased him of his gink, a-gathering of green broom.
>
> One day as I was turning all to my native vale,
> I met Jack Sprat the miller, he asked me to turn tail;
> His mill I rattled round, I ground the grists so clean,
> I eased him of his gink, a-gathering broom so green.
>
> Now the second meaning of the gink of which she eases these gentlemen is =
> clear (especially by the last verse, when the narrator is forced to give =
> up her besom-selling for nursing), but there must be a first meaning (I =
> assume =3D 'money, coin'), which I can't find in any lexicon=85but one =
> (see below).
>
> The OED entry for _gink_ evidently involves a different lexical item:
>
> Etymology:  Of obscure origin.
> slang (orig. U.S.).
>
> A fellow; a man. (Freq. pejorative.)
> 1910    Sat. Evening Post 22 Oct. 12/3,   I don't believe that all these =
> ginks have got coin enough to support one good game.
> [etc.]
>
> Note the 'orig. U.S.', which is at variance with what I assume to be a =
> local British sense within the song.
>
> There's no entry for _gink_ in Farmer & Henley or in Wright's _English =
> Dialect Dictionary_, and the web is no apparent help.  Neither the =
> acronym adopted by the eponymous facebook group (GINK =3D 'Green =
> Inclinations, No Kids') nor the first several entries on =
> urbandictionary, either the OED sense ('man', derogatory) or various =
> more specific slurs (gink =3D pejorative for someone of Indian descent) =
> are particularly relevant.  But curiously, the 13th entry on ud (despite =
> all the thumbs down) seems to be on target, although I can't parse the =
> example provided:
>
> 13. gink 28 up, 47 down
> Money, currency.
> Dat nickel gots da GINK yun!
>
> Any suggestions?  Do any actual lexicons contain this sense?
>
> LH=
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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