UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?

Subject: RE: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 02:46 PM

Looked in several slang dictionaries as well as the reliable old OED. No luck.
The expression seems logical, however. Sounds like Joy was condensing to just the pertinent information, getting the highlights, or (many expressions) sorting the wheat from the chaff, looking for the jewel, highlighting, 'where's the beef? etc. etc. Looking for the kernels or the gems in a wad of bumff = gem down? Why not?

(I saw an expression in the newspaper this morning that was new to me, and used in a way not found in any dictionary, but I will post in a separate thread so that I will not dilute Mr. Red's in(en)quiry)

Subject: RE: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 01:40 PM

still don't see it as the answer. GEM because they are the best bits maybe. But where does it originate from?

Subject: RE: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 12:15 PM

'gen up' I always thought meant to find out about something?

Subject: RE: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 12:09 PM

not crossed my mind. It would have to be a corruption. &/or mis-heard from Joy's grandparents. I think the book is still wide open

any more ideas?

Subject: RE: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: Santa
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 10:20 AM

"gen" is a widely used term for information or intelligence (not as in brainpower!) - certainly dating back to WW2. Sounds as though this could be connected? Certainly a list of events could be described as being, or containing, the "gen".

Subject: UK dialect 'gem-down' - origins?
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 08:29 AM

Joy used the phrase today

gem-down in connection with a list of salient events, a chronological synopsis, a simple what's-on.

Not a phrase I have ever encountered. She, of course, felt everyone used the phrase. I thought it might be a Gloucestershire colloquialism but she pointed to her Yorkshire (cusp Lancashire) ancestry. Pennine/Huddersfield canal tunnel area.

So - what area do we reckon it eminates from?