[Ads-l] Ginch (antedating to 1920)

[Nancy Friedman]

I'm just now catching up with this thread and am reminded of something I
wrote in 2013 about a Canadian underwear company called Ginch Gonch:

https://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2013/05/underwear-week-ginch-gonch.html

There was a lively discussion in the comments!

The company is still in business. The home page declares “We've got your
ginches coverd [sic].”
https://ginchgonch.com/



Nancy Friedman
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On Mon, Jun 23, 2025, 2:58 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake <
00001a89b77a7850-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Some time ago, Jonathan Lighter pushed "ginch" back to the University of
> Wisconsin ca. 1926/1927. (Actually, I think the text he refers to is on
> page 19 of the March 1927 issue of the School of Law's "The Gargoyle.")
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-August/111994.html
>
> Here it is at Yale in 1920. (And at the University of Illinois by at least
> the end of 1928.)
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> The product of Finch and the Chapel Street ginch are "sisters under the
> skin."
>
> [Y.G.S., "Q.E.D.," The Yale Record, 20 April 1920, p. 608;
>
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yul.yg15_r_245_v48_i13&seq=18&q1=ginch
> ]
>
> In 1924, TIME magazine explained that The Finch School in New York City was
> one of the premier finishing schools of the time. It also revealed that
> "[s]aid the *Yale Record*, in verses illustrative of womankind's universal
> sorority: 'The girl from Finch and the Chapel Street ginch; Are sisters
> under the skin.'"
>
>
> https://www.google.com/books/edition/Time/wuiqBOhbo_4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22the+girl+from+finch+and+the+chapel+street+ginch%22&pg=RA37-PA17&printsec=frontcover
>
> ----------------
>
> And there is little immediate likelihood of ginches on the Illinois campus
> being forced to the extremities of some Northwestern girls to secure
> escorts ...
>
> ["A School of Size," The Daily Illini, 29 December 1928, p. 4;
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-illini-ginches-12291928/175126819/
> ]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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