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

If I post the word here, then this whole thread will get deleted, so I'm using this first post as a protection barrier. If post #2 on this thread is deleted, you'll know that it's some word that is no longer allowed on h2g2. But if you have any info on the meaning or etymology, if h2g2 staff still considers etymology to have "editorial merit," then please tell me what you know about--

I can tell it's supposed to be an insult. John Lennon says "such a stupid git" and I could have sworn I've heard it thrown around on Red Dwarf, but maybe I'm confused with SMEG.

So if anyone could clear this up, I'd be much obliged.

Oh, that. Yes, it's an insult. I'm not sure exactly what it means though.

Git is certainly an insult of the nature already discussed. Should not cause particular offence, Alf Garnett ('Till Death Us Do Part) used to refer his Liverpudlian son in law, played by Anthony Booth, (Tony Blair's father in law) as a "scouse git". As a child I misheard this and thought that "scasgit" was rather an interesting word and proceeded to use it at every oportunity.

OED says "silly or contemptible person"

PP

I found this in a Dictionary of Playground Slang on the internet but cannot give you the URL

"git n. 1) An excessively stupid or unpleasant person. 2) term of abuse misinterpreted at West Lodge Middle School, Pinner, Middlesex in late- '70s, where rumour circulated that it was the proper scientific term for "a pregnant camel". Hence common playground dialogue: "You git!". "F**k off, I am not a pregnant camel" (ed: strangely enough I grew up under the impression a 'git' was the child of an Irish prostitute. We 'learn' such odd stuff when we are kids!)"

I've always thought a Git was an obnoxious person and I just looked it up in my Dictionary of Historical Slang. Suprisingly, the only reference to Git is 'see Get' as in 'Get out of here'.

Odd

Wb

In a recent TV show about The Monkees, their song title "Randy Scouse Git" was translated into American as "Horny Liverpudlian Jerk", so I suppose it means "jerk". Of course, in the UK the word "git" was considered so offensive that the song was given the alternate title "Alternate Title", and not "Horny Liverpudlian Jerk" which would have been so much more fun on Top Of The Pops.

Your Oxford was mistaken.
It is connected with "get" but in the sense of "spawn" or "offspring", connected with the old verb "to beget".
Your get are your (probably illegitimate) offspring. So the background information is that a git is younger than the person calling him one and is being a stupid b*****d. The word can't be addressed to women. ()

No female gits? Who says? No female b*****ds?

Technically, a female b*****d would be a bitch. I think. Is that right?

A b*****d is a person born out of wedlock. A bitch is a female dog. I know we're capable of some pretty stupid and cruel conflations, but surely this isn't one of them.

Of course there are illegitimate girls. In British English usage, however, they are not referred to as gits.

Neither are they referred to as bitches (with any logic) which is what I was responding to.

With everything in life, things become more complicated when females enter the picture.

I could have sworn that "bitch" refered to only a pregnant female dog, or a female dog who had given birth at least once. (Maybe to distinguish from a virgin female dog that could be worth more?) But I was corrected by none other than Peta who said it just means female dog. My reputation and self-confidence as a swearer has been thrown into disarray.

So has my idea of the English language. I was certain it meant an illegitimate female, but according to the dictionary the only way it's either a female dog, a woman "considered to be spiteful or overbearing" or a "lewd" woman. Those last two are listed as "offensive".

So illegitimate females are still called b******ds then?

'Git!' is what y'say to a horse or a dog or a cat or an obnoxious child to 'git' it to move along and 'git' outa the way.

Since most of god's critters are smart enuff to know when to git, the word is usually directed to the rear end of the departing gittee.

Short form of 'gitty-up' usually spoken to the back end of a horse. So if someone calls you a 'git', it's because they see you as equine hindquarters.

A mild observation about moderation - in some other threads bastard - meaning illegitimate person of either sex - is spelled out in full.

I think I may raise this in the moderation threads, because it would be good for everyone, moderators and users alike, if we could have some clarity here.

William the Conquerer was recognised by his father despite his illegitimacy, and was known as William the Bastard before the Norman Conquest. After the Norman Conquest, the English Anglo Saxons called him William the Bastard for quite a different reason.

Bitches are certainly female dogs of any age, spayed or unspayed.

And finally, talking of men who behave like b*****ds, Jack Nicolson is quoted as saying that his mother used to call him a son of a bitch with no perceptable irony.

agcB

Raised with the Towers - for those who are interested in such things: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F63273?thread=112310 agcB

Just to re-iterate what has probably already been said, according to the Collins English Dictionary a 'GIT' is a) "a contemptible person, often a fool" b) "A bastard (from GET - in the sense: 'to beget', hence a bastard, fool)"

B*****D is thought to come from the French word 'bast' as in 'fils de bast' meaning son of the packsaddle (that is, of an unlawful and not the marriage bed). 'Bast' comes from the Medieval Latin 'bastum'- packsaddle.

However, I have only ever referred to men as b*****ds, women I call bitches (whether or not they are canine/spayed or illigitimate). If they really offend me I might even call them a c*** - but only in extreme circumstances.

I just want to point out that git is only a very very mild form of abuse (certainly in the UK anyway). I call my girlfriend a git when she has teased me or something. Its not bad at all, I tend to use it affectionately with people, calling someone a git as a real form of abuse is more likely to encourage them to laugh at you.
I also tend to agree with it meaning someone is an excessively stupid or unpleasant person. Telling someone to 'git' as in go away is not used in the UK, it's an american term.
There is now way it would get moderated I would not have thought.