BS: Please explain the word 'Git'

Subject: RE: BS- Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Rasener
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 11:51 AM

Used that expression back in the 50's 60's a lot.

If we said You stupid git, it was normally a freindly expression aimed at a friend.

Whereas if we used Get, is was spoken harshly and was tantamount to wanting to punch somebodies head in.

We might say something like

"See that git/get over there"
"Who? that one over there"
"Yes, he's a miserable bastard"

Subject: RE: BS- Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Alan Day
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 11:57 AM

I had the pleasure of chatting to Tony Booth on the way up to London on the Gatwick Express (not first class). He was living in Ireland. We had a great chat ,exchanged a few jokes and shook hands on arrival at Victoria. Nice down to earth friendly guy. Not a git.
Al

Subject: RE: BS- Please explain the word 'Git'
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 01:23 PM

I was told in the days of my youth, that a 'get', was the 7th bastard son, of a 7th bastard son.

Subject: RE: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:37 PM

Blimey! was that, like, THE Morrissey who posted that terse "test" bit? :0

Subject: RE: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:43 PM

I've always understood 'Get' signified 'the offspring of,' and 'Git' was the South-Eastern-English pronunciation of it. Dahn Sowf the pronounce ALL their vowels wrong, of course. :-)

And yes, Kiwis do, too. I call it 'The sucks-sacks-sex syndrome.'   But of course, everyone speaks English with an accent, whilst proclaiming stoutly that they don't.

Subject: RE: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 04:05 PM

Yes - "stupid fucking git" is more likely, aimed at oiks who would never pronounce consonants at the end of a word!

Subject: RE: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: GUEST,Tinker in Chicago
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 05:14 PM

And then there's the track on an old Monkees album that was entitled "Randy Scouse Git." The lyrics had nothing to do with the title, though. I think they just wanted to confuse their fans by using non-American words.

Subject: RE: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Smedley
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 05:26 PM

Ah, but to connect different sections of this thread. Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, who wrote that song, admitted he took the title from an episode of Till Death Us Do Part, the UK sitcom cited earlier as a text in which 'git' was a favourite term of abuse.

Subject: RE: BS: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 09:18 PM

I've always understood that a 'get' or 'git' is the bastard son of a bastard (if you see what I mean).

Subject: RE: BS: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 11:05 PM

Did the word make it to Australia? It must have, surely.

It's taken a while, McGrath, but the answer is both yes and no. I suspect most Australians are familiar with the word, and most of its British uses and meanings, from various TV shows that originated in the Old Dart, just as we're familiar with N.Am. uses of it from their TV shows that we've seen. But I don't recall it becoming part of our own vernacular, where, "bastard" (whose equivalence has been pointed out by yourself and others) still has pride of place.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Please explain the word 'Git'
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 12:00 AM

And then there's the track on an old Monkees album that was entitled "Randy Scouse Git." The lyrics had nothing to do with the title, though. I think they just wanted to confuse their fans by using non-American words.

The title means "horny Liverpudlian bastard" -- which I believe was meant to apply to one of the Fab Four.

Since nobody else has it to hand, I looked up "git" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Just because I happen to have a copy and love showing off.

git slang. [var. GET] In contemptuous use: a worthless person.

Hence I looked up GET; the relevant sense is here:

[2.] b. orig. Sc. and north. In contemptuous use = brat. Also spec. a bastard; hence as a general term of abuse: a fool, idiot. (Cf. GIT.) Now dial. and slang.

(Note: Sc. means Scottish; north. means Northern dialect.)

O..O
=o=