Advertisement

Origin and history of git

git(n.)

"worthless person," 1946, British slang, a southern variant of Scottish get "illegitimate child, brat," which is attested by 1706 ("Gregor Burgess protested against the said Allane that called him a witch gyt or bratt"), according to "Dictionaries of the Scots Languages"); related to beget on the notion of "what is got." Scots get, gyt, geitt, etc. also can be an affectionate term for a child. 

Entries linking to git

Middle English biyeten, from Old English begietan (West Saxon), bigetan, bigeotan (Anglian) "to get by effort, find, acquire, attain, seize" (class V strong verb, past tense begeat, past participle begeaton), from be- + get (v.). The sense of "to procreate" is from c. 1200, generally used of the father only. Similar formation in Old Saxon bigitan, Old High German pigezzan, Gothic bigitan "to get, obtain." Related: Begot; begotten.

    Advertisement

    Trends of git

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    Share git

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Advertisement