"G" Word Origins

geek

Origin · 1900

Originally carnival slang for a sideshow performer who did shocking stunts, itself from an old dialect word geck meaning "fool" — the meaning shifted over the 20th century from "oddball" to today's more affectionate "enthusiast."

geeky

Origin

Formed from geek plus the adjective suffix -y.

geet

Sanskrit

Unrelated in this slang sense to the borrowed Sanskrit word geet meaning "song," which is also used as a given name.

geez

Origin

A softened way of saying "Jesus," used to avoid swearing directly.

geezer

Origin

Thought to come from guiser, an old word for someone in disguise or costume, as in a mummer or masquerader.

Gehrig

German

A German surname, a variant of Gehring.

Geiger

German

Borrowed from German Geiger.

geisha

Japanese

From Japanese geisha, literally "person of the arts," combining characters for "art" and "person."

gel

Latin · 1800

Coined in the 1800s by chemist Thomas Graham as a short form of gelatin, which itself traces back to Latin gelu, "frost."

gelastic

Origin

From γελαστής (gelastḗs, “laughter”), from γελάω (geláō, “I laugh”) + -ic.

gelatin

Latin

Borrowed from French gélatine, ultimately from Latin gelō, "to freeze" or "congeal."

gelatinous

Origin

From gelatine + -ous; probably modeled on French gélatineux.

gelato

Latin

From Italian gelato, "frozen," ultimately from Latin gelū, "frost."

gelcap

Origin

clipping of gelatin + capsule

geld

Origin

From Middle English geld (and reinforced by Medieval Latin geldum), both from Old English ġeld, ġield (“payment, tribute”) (which regularly yield yield), from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”). Probably reinforced by gelt (which see), see Norwegian Bokmål gjeld (“debt”), Danish gæld (“debt”) (whence apparently the otherwise irregular hard g in Middle English geld and perhaps also in Medieval Latin geldum, as opposed to the regular continuation yield from Old English). Geld is also written gelt or gild, and as such found in wergild, Danegeld, etc. Doublet of yield. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian jild (“money”), Saterland Frisian Jield, Jäild (“money”), Dutch geld (“money”), German Geld (“money”), Old Norse gjald (“payment”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳 (gild, “tribute”). Also related to English yield.

gelding

Middle English

From Middle English geldyng, from Old Norse geldingr, related to gelda, "to castrate."

gelotology

Origin

From Ancient Greek γέλωτος (gélōtos) (the genitive of γέλως (gélōs, “laughter”)) + English -logy (suffix denoting the study of a particular subject), coined by the anthropologist and linguist Edith Trager with participation from the American psychiatrist William F. Fry, Jr. (1924–2014) in March 1964.

gelt

Origin

In the basic sense of "money", attested since the early 16th century, initially from (an Early New High German continuation of) Middle High German gelt (modern German Geld), from Old High German gelt (“payment, money”), or in some cases from (an Early Modern Dutch continuation of) Middle Dutch gelt. Later, and in the Jewish-related senses, from Yiddish געלט (gelt). The German, Dutch and Yiddish words are all from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”). Doublet of native words geld and yield.

gem

Latin

From Old English ġimm and Old French gemme, both ultimately from Latin gemma, meaning a jewel or a swelling bud on a plant.

Gemini

Latin

From Latin geminī, "twins," tracing the idea back through Greek and even older Near Eastern astronomy where the same stars were seen as divine twins.

gemma

Latin

A learned borrowing from Latin gemma, meaning "bud" — the same root that gave English the word gem.

gemmation

Origin

From gemma + -ation.

gemstone

Old English

From Old English ġimstān, a compound of gem and stone.

Gen

Origin

Shortened from "generation."

gena

Latin

Borrowed from Latin gena, "cheek."

gendarme

French

From French gendarme, originally a back-formation from gens d'armes, "people of arms."

gendarmerie

French

From French gendarmerie, built on gendarme.

gender

Latin

From Old French gendre, from Latin genus, "kind" or "type" — the same root that gave us genre and genus.

gender fluid

English

A compound of gender and fluid, on the model of other modern gender-identity terms.

gender neutral

Latin

Gender is from Latin genus, meaning kind or sort, via Old French gendre; neutral is from Latin neutralis, from neuter meaning neither of the two.

genderfluid

English

A closed compound of gender and fluid.

genderism

Origin

From gender + -ism.

genderqueer

Origin

From gender + queer. First known uses were in queer zines of the 1980s. Popularized in the 1990s including by Riki Wilchins.

Genders

Old French

From Old French gendre, "son-in-law," with an added patronymic "-s."

gendersex

Origin

From gender + sex.

gene

Greek · 1909

Coined in 1909 by Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen, taken from the last part of the earlier word pangene, itself rooted in Greek genea, "generation" or "descent."

genealogical

Origin

From French généalogique + -al, equivalent to genealogy + -ical.

genealogy

Latin

From Greek geneā ("descent, generation") plus -logia ("study of"), via Old French and Latin.

general

Latin

From Latin generalis ("relating to a whole class or kind"), from genus ("kind, class") — the same root behind "genre" and "genus".

generalissimo

Italian

Borrowed from Italian generalissimo, literally "most general" — the superlative form of generale.

generally

Origin

From general plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

generate

Latin

From Latin generare ("to beget, produce"), from genus ("kind, race").

generated

Latin

From Latin generare, 'to beget or produce', from genus 'birth, kind'.

generation

Latin

From Latin generatio ("a begetting, producing"), from generare ("to beget, produce").

generator

Latin

From Latin generare ("to beget, produce") plus the agent suffix -or.

generic

Latin

From Latin genus ("kind, class") plus the adjective suffix -ic, via French générique.

generosity

Latin

From Latin generositas, from generosus ("of noble birth", later "noble in character") — the sense shifted from noble birth to noble, giving behaviour.

generous

Latin

From Latin generosus ("of noble birth"), from genus ("stock, race") — nobility of birth came to imply nobility of character, hence generosity.