"gink"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

That's occurred to me, Doug, but "ginch" is a pretty obscure dialect term
from rural Scotland. I wonder how many people ever used it.

The Concise Scots Dictionary lists only "gunch," BTW, with the extended
(20th C.) meaning of a "short, thickset person," primarily in Caithness.

The distinction between "ginch" and "gunch" in spoken Scots, of course,
would often be problematic.

JL

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:31 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "gink"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 8/31/2011 4:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ....
> > But if we want to get conjectural, what the hell is the origin of U.S.
> > "ginch" ('sexually attractive or available young woman/women')? Big in
> the
> > '50s, IIRC.
> --
>
> Conjectural only: "ginch" = "small piece" (Scots): in Wright's EDD
> (Banff) and Warrack's "Scots Dialect Dictionary".
>
> (Cf. "gunch" = "big piece".)
>
> I think the earlier citations seem compatible with a non-obscene usage:
> perhaps comparable to "piece of fluff/skirt/etc.".
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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