h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some of the combo bets here are 'quinella', 'exactor', 'daily double'...

Yes but why are they called 'gee-gees'?

Wasn't there a posh race-track scene in the movie version of the musical 'Gigi' starring Maurice Chevalier - which translates roughly to Morris Horseman btw.


jwf

Just the fax, ma'am.

Ok JD,

Chambers gives us all sorts:

Gee(1) - the 7th letter of the alphabet (ok, ok, I know you knew that one, but it's always nice to see letters 'spelt' out like that!)

Gee(2) a fit of perversity (I never heard of this myself)

Gee(3) v.i. (of horses) to move to the right or to move on; n. gee-gee a child's word for a horse; gee up, to proceed faster, chiefly used as a command to horses (also gee hup); to encourage, to stimulate, buck up.

Gee(4) v.i. to go, to suit, to get on well.

Gee(5) a heavy duty radio navigation thing! (sorry, too tech )

Gee(6) (U.S), interjection; expressing surprise, sarcasm, enthusiasm, etc.: sometimes used only for emphaasis - gee whiz [origin: perhaps Jesus]
(I love that 'origin: perhaps Jesus' bit! )

Gee-string, a string or strip worn round the waist supporting a strip worn between the legs or this strip itself, or both, or any similar covering for the genitals. Also G-string [origin obscure]

Of course, you're after the origins of 'gee-gees' and I am not really helping much on that front, but you can't have everything. No is the best I can do at the mo'

I just added the G-string (dubious spelling there!) definition because it was just below Gee and I liked it. I really *do* enjoy reading my dictionary.

My all time fave definition is Chambers def of 'baffle' - a classic!

Seeya
Spiff

Rats! Pipped at the post. (A little topical reference there.)
My maternal grandfather was a dairyman, and because of his abilities was awarded a field gun in WW1. (This is beginning to sound familiar. Sorry if I've bored you with it before.) Anyway, because of this I am an expert and can confidently state that horses are nasty, dangerous (just ask any WW1 German soldier) smelly things that should be avoided at all cost. Hah, that's better.
I reckon that "Gee up" thing is at the bottom of it. (I offer no origin for it though.) There is the usual repetition for small children e.g. baba, bon-bon, choo-choo, Tinky Winky, La-La, cha-cha ...
Can you spell "hungry horse" in four letters?





M.T.G.G.
Sorry

Y'all need better dictionaries

'Gee!' (or 'gee up!') was originally what was said to make horses move (I'm eschewing a bunch of technical horsey terms with which I am, of course, fully conversant). Through metonymy the meaning became horse, and through infantile reduplication we ended up with gee-gee. And, just go get my contradiction in first, 'giddy-up!' is derived from 'gee up!' and not the other way around.

"Reduplication"
You sure, Mycroft?

"Reduplication"
You sure Mycroft?

Ooooh, cheeky!

Interestingly, Frogbit's double posting shows language evolution in action. The earlier posting is more formal and grammatical. The later one, by eschewing punctuation, conveys a more casual, 21st Century style.

I like casual, clear, modern. Not that stuffy old style.

The Times (London) yesterday included a complete reproduction of an issue from 50 years ago. A visual nightmare! Glad somethings have improved.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

All members ( and gee-gees) invited to my party for Chinese New Year ( February 12th- whenever) Go to U189308 ,find a room and be high brow. Party on Mycroft!

It is my opinion (to be taken as a warning that I think I'm right) that in all cases 'Gee' is a pronunciation of the letter G and therefore short for a word beginning with G
gee up = giddy up or get up, G string to cover your genitalia,Gee! = god,GBH = grievous bodily harm, GI= government issue, GP= general practitioner, a G suit = a gravity suit, but what is the G in G spot?

I didn't spot the difference as I''m too lazy to read the second of what appear to be identical posts
willy-nilly, hoity-toity,namby-pamby, wishy-washy

Grafenberg spot. Named after the gynocologist who first discovered it. Although it is safe to say that an awful lot of females found it before him, it none the less demonstates that men *can* locate it with enough hard-ware.

If I can stop chortling over frogbit's wit long enuff I will add 'Jeep' to W's list of 'gees'. It was originally 'GP' for General Purpose vehicle.

And to her second list (willy-nilly et al) may I ajoin 'jeepers creepers'.


~jwf~

If the one-month trial of allowing links in threads is successful, might it herald the return of the original British English thread?

If it did, would we want the two threads to be joined? And could TPTB be persuaded if we did?

Perhaps we can discuss this aside as the thread contines to develop.

Good Morning K!

I think the old BE thread should be available for reference, but it will only confuse things if people start posting to it as well as to this one. Is there such a thing as a Read-Only thread?

I think we should be thinking of a suitable prize for the first person to tell us what the d*gs b*ll*cks means

Naughty, WS, to even hint at that subject! Though I now consider myself something of an expert on that linguistic area. It was nice to see this used (not for the first time) as a cultural joke in the recent film 'The 51st State', in an exchange between Samuel Jackson and Robert Carlyle.

Gnomon, I thought this thread could be tagged onto the original thread (making an 8000 post whopper), thereby getting around any problems about having two threads. At least, that would be my proposal. What do you think? (As I said before, assuming TPTB could and would accede to any such request).

The disadvantage of that, K, is that the original 20 postings would once again become the ones that newbies would see when they clicked on British English, leading to the inevitable answers that W has already referred to.

Perhaps newbies who start at the beginning of threads will be lost in the sequel too. Besides, it was kinda nice and nostalgic when someone posted a response to the first post, don't you think?

I take it, then, that you're not keen on the idea of combining the two?