[Ads-l] galoot and galloot, 1808

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

For anyone interested, I wrote an article on this word:
Origin of slang galoot, draft #2.  Comments on Etymology,
vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 26-32.
The etymology had long been mysterious, but I present the
case that it's a borrowing from the Arabic word for Goliath
(Galut, with both vowels long).  In Standard Arabic his name
is pronounced Jalut, but in Lower Egypt (and Yemen) we
find a hard /g/.

Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, March 5, 2023 9:17 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: galoot and galloot, 1808

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OED has galoot from 1819, origin unknown.

The cruise :
a poetical sketch, in eight cantos /

Naval Officer.

1808
English Book 448 pages ; 22 cm
London : Printed for J. Hatchard,

p. 135
not slovenly Galloots!*....

*"Galloot," means a clumsy, slovenly fellow.

p. 287
...an absolute Galoot,
Raw from the country

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sg




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