"G" Word Origins

gunshy

Origin

From gun + shy.

gunslinger

Origin

From gun + slinger (one who "slings", or draws quickly).

gunslinging

Origin

From gun + slinging.

gunsmith

Origin

From gun + smith.

Gunter

Origin · 1600

Named after Edmund Gunter, a 17th-century English mathematician associated with related nautical and measuring instruments.

Gunther

German

From Old High German Gundheri, from elements meaning "battle" and "army."

Guo

Origin

From Mandarin 郭 (Guō).

gup

Origin

Borrowed from Hindi गप (gap, “gossip; idle talk”).

guppy

Origin

Named after biologist Robert J. L. Guppy, after whom the fish was mistakenly identified in scientific naming.

Gupta

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit गुप्त (gupta).

gurgle

Origin

Back formation from Middle English gurguling (“a rumbling in the belly”). Akin to Middle Dutch gorgelen (“to gurgle”), Middle Low German gorgelen (“to gurgle”), German gurgeln (“to gargle”), and perhaps to Latin gurguliō (“throat”).

gurney

Origin · 1880

Origin uncertain — possibly named after Theodore Gurney, credited with patenting a similar wheeled cab design in the 1880s.

guru

Sanskrit

From Hindi/Sanskrit गुरु (guru), meaning "venerable" or "weighty" — the same root gives English the word "grave" (serious).

guruji

Origin

From guru plus the respectful suffix -ji.

Gus

Origin

A clipped form of Augustus.

gush

Middle English

From Middle English guschen, likely echoing the gurgling sound of water, related to gust.

Gussie

Origin

Originally a pet form of the given names Augustus and Augusta; the slang senses developed separately in regional and informal use.

gussy

Origin

First use appears c. 1952, apparently from Gussy (an adjective), schoolyard slang for “overly dressed” (1940); perhaps related to gussie (“an effeminate man”) (1901) and somehow connected to Gussie, the nickname for Augusta and Augustus.

gust

Old Norse

From an early English word borrowed from Old Norse gustr ("a gust, blast"); related to gush.

gustable

Origin

From Latin gustus (“taste”).

gustate

Origin

Borrowed from Latin gustātus, perfect passive participle of gustō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Gustav

Old Norse

From Old Swedish Gøtstaf, from Old Norse Gautr ("Geat/Goth") + stafr ("staff").

Gustave

French

From French Gustave. French form of Swedish royal name Gustav; see Gustav for more.

gustavus

Origin

Borrowed from Latin Gustavus. From Swedish Gustav.

gustful

Origin

From gust + -ful.

gusto

Latin

From Italian gusto ("taste"), from Latin gustus. A distant relation of the English word "cost".

gusu

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 姑蘇 /姑苏 (Gūsū).

gut

Old English

From Old English gutt ("entrails"), going back to a very old root meaning "to pour" — the same idea behind the word "gutter".

gut health

English

A compound of gut, from Old English guttas 'entrails', and health.

Guthrie

Irish

Of various origins, including: *An anglicization of Irish gaothair; *An anglicization of Scottish Gaelic mag Uchtre; or *An anglicization of Irish Ó Fhlaithimh.

Gutierrez

Spanish

From Spanish Gutiérrez.

gutless

Origin

From gut + the suffix -less ("without").

gutsy

Origin

From guts + the adjective suffix -y.

gutted

Origin

Past tense/adjective form of the verb gut.

gutter

Latin

From Old French goutiere, based on Latin gutta ("a drop"), since a gutter carries away drops of rainwater.

guttersnipe

Origin

From gutter + snipe.

guttle

Origin

The verb is possibly derived from gut (“belly”) + -le (frequentative suffix), perhaps influenced by guzzle (“to drink or eat quickly, voraciously, or to excess; to gulp down; to swallow greedily, continually, or with gusto”). The noun is derived from the verb.

guttural

Latin

From Latin guttur ("throat"), via Middle French guttural.

guv

Origin

A shortened, informal pronunciation of "governor."

guy

Origin · 1605

From "Guy Fawkes," the man behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in England; effigies of him burned on bonfires eventually gave the word its casual sense of "man" or "fellow."

Guzman

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Guzmán.

guzzle

Old French · 1576

Possibly imitative of the sound of eager drinking, or from Old French gosillier ("to pass through the throat"). First recorded in English in 1576.

guzzling

French

From the verb "guzzle," probably related to the French gosillier, "to chatter or vomit," ultimately tracing back to gosier, "throat."

gwan

Origin

A blend of "goose" and "swan."

Gwen

Origin

A shortened form of Gwendolen or Guinevere; doublet of Wendy.

Gwendolen

Welsh

From Welsh gwen ("white, fair, blessed") + dolen ("ring, bow, hair, brow").

Gwendolyn

Origin

A variant of Gwendolen, Gwendoline with -lyn.

gwenllian

Origin

From Welsh Gwenllian.