"gink"?

[Dan Goncharoff]

I wish to declare I am neither a gunch or a ginch.

TheGonch

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 31, 2011, at 6:00 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "gink"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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