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Guide
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Recent changes
as of 2015-03-22
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galligaskin
- •naut. baggy trousers worn by sailors of the 17°
and 18° centuries and, metaphorically, the sailors themselves.
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gamekeeper
- •a person employed to care for and protect game
(=animals hunted for sport or food).
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ganger
- •Brit. the foreman of a gang of workers
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gaoler
/jayl-er/
- •a keeper of the gaol (jail), a jailer
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gentleman
(
 ~woman)
- •A person of gentle or noble birth, or superior social position.
- •
 A man of independant means who does not have to work for a living.
- •A woman acting as a personal attendant to a lady of rank.
- gentleman commoner
- •a university student, esp one of means.
- cf sizar
- gentleman farmer
- •a country gentleman who farms.
- Gentleman of the Bedchamber
- •
- gentleman usher
- •an usher to royalty who attended at balls and state functions.
- Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod
- •originally the Royal Council chamber guard,
he was the chief Royal usher;
Now attached to the House of Lords.
- gentleman-at-arms
- •UK one of the sovereign's bodyguard.
- gentleman-in-waiting
- •Brit a man of gentle birth attached to a royal household.
- gentleman's gentleman (=butler)
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gerefa
- •an administrative officer under the Old English kings.
(=reeve)
[OED]
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gerent
- •one who holds an office;
a manager, ruler.
[OED]
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-german
- •having the same parents, as brother-german, sister-german.
- •having the same grandparents; a first cousin, as cousin-german;
also own cousin.
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gladiator
- •a person, usu. a professional combatant, a captive, or a slave,
trained to entertain the public by engaging in mortal combat
with another person or a wild animal in the ancient Roman arena.
- •a person engaged in a controversy or debate, esp. in public;
a disputant
- •sports a professional boxer
(=from the Latin gladiolus, a sword)
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glazier
- •a window glassman, one who cuts and fits window glass.
- •a repairer of windowpanes.
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gleaner
- •one who gathers grain left behind by reapers.
[AHD]
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gleeman
- •mus a medieval itinerant singer or minstral.
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gob
- •Am. sl. (=sailor)
- cf gobby
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gobby
- •Brit. sl. a coastguard
- •an American sailor, cf gob
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goldbrick
- •slang a person, esp. a soldier, who avoids assigned duties or work;
a shirker.
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goliard
- •a wandering student in medieval Europe disposed to
conviviality,
license,
and the making of ribald and satirical Latin songs.
[AHD]
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goner
- •slang one that is ruined or doomed.
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gong farmer
- •Tudor someone who dug out and removed human excrement from privies and cesspits;
the word "gong" was used for both a privy and its contents.
Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night, hence they were sometimes known as nightmen.
The waste they collected, known as night soil, had to be taken outside the city or town boundary or to official dumps for disposal, from where it might be taken to be spread as fertiliser on fields or market gardens.
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goodman
(~wife)
- •the male [female] head of a family.
- Good~
- •a courtesy title used before the surname of
man [married woman] not of noble birth.
- goody
- •archaic goodwife
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gourmand
- •a glutton
- •disp a gourmet
-
gourmet
- •a connoisseur of good or delicate food.
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governess
- •dom a combined instructor and child-minder.
Considered by the rest of the staff as a mere upstairs maid
with leave to go about without a cap,
they were, however, occasionally invited to dine with the family —
when there was no company present!
[QC]
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grand master
abbr: GM or G.M.
- •games a chess player regarded as having the highest level of ability.
(=Defined by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as having an ELO rating > 2500)
- •a person of the highest competence or achievement in a particular field.
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grande dame
/däm/
- •a highly respected elderly or middle-aged woman.
- •a respected woman having extensive experience in her field.
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grandee
- •a nobleman of the highest rank in Spain and Portugal;
used as a title for such a nobleman.
- •a person of eminence or high rank.
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granger
- •the bailiff in charge of a grange
(=a farmhouse or land with farm buildings, often belonging to the church)
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grass widow
- •a woman who is divorced or separated from her husband.
- •a woman whose husband is temporarily absent.
- •an abandoned mistress.
- •the mother of an illegitimate child.
(=According to the AHD, grass probably referred to a bed of grass or hay as opposed to a real bed, explaining the unsavory associations. Later, this association became obscured and interpreted as pasture as in out to pasture, with associations of a divorced or separated woman. )
- cf widow
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grave
(=reeve)
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greengrocer
- •Brit. a retailer of fruits and vegetables.
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greensmith
- •a smith who works in copper.
(=presumable from the green color of oxidized copper)
Also: brownsmith
- cf whitesmith
- cf blacksmith
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grenadier
- •hist a soldier armed with grenades
(=a small bomb designed to be thrown by hand.)
- Grenadier [Guard]
- •Brit the first regiment of the royal household infantry.
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grieve
(=reeve)
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grocer
- •a dealer in food and household provisions.
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groom
- •obs a man-child; a boy
- •a man, a male person, (e.g. herd-groom)
- •a man of inferior position; a serving-man; a man-servant; a male attendant
- •dom the specific designations of several officers of the English Royal Household,
chiefly of the Lord Chamberlain's department,
with defining prepositional phrases, as
- ~ of the (Privy, Great) Chamber
- ~ of the Stole [Stool]
- ~ in Waiting
- ~ of the Beds (obs)
- ~ of the Crossbows (obs)
- •a person employed to care for horses
- •short for bridegroom;
(=rare except in conjuction with bride)
[OED]
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groom-porter
- •an officer of the English Royal Household,
abolished under George III;
his principal duties, at least from the 16th c.,
were to regulate all matters connected with gaming within the precincts
of the court, to furnish cards and dice, etc., and to resolve disputes arising at play.
[OED]
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guerrilla
- •A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids.
[TFD]
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guide
- •one who shows the way by leading, directing, or advising.
- •one who serves as a model for others, as in a course of conduct.
- •a person employed to conduct others, as through a museum
and give information about points of interest encountered.
- cf docent
- cf xenagogue
- •mil a soldier stationed at the right or left of a column of marchers to control alignment, show direction, or mark the point of pivot.
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gunsel
- •slang a criminal armed with a gun.
- •slang a catamite.
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