A Dictionary of Cont..

guerrilla, but this is a little fanciful, and if it
ever was it has certainly become gorilla, expressing
not so much the idea of an irregular
warrior as of a powerful brute.
guess; conjecture; surmise. To guess is to form a
notion or imperfect opinion without certain
knowledge but on the basis of probable indications
(By the measure of my grief/ I leave thy
greatness to be guessed). In its particular application
to the solving of riddles and enigmas, it
means to conjecture correctly (Can you guess
exactly what 1 mean?). It is loosely used to
mean think, suppose, or imagine and this use,
though absurd when applied to a certainty (as
in Well, I’m too tired to get uu, so 1 guess 1’11
just go’ on sitting), is &nctidned by- English
writers from Chaucer to Wordsworth. Chaucer
says that he guessed he never heard sweeter
music than some he alludes to. Shakespeare has
Lord Talbot, in First Henry Sixth, say that he
guesses it would be better for several scaling
parties to assault the walls of Orleans separately.
Sheridan uses the word this way and so does
Wordsworth. The point has been labored a little
because this use is frequently regarded as not
standard and among English writers unfamiliar
with their own literature and language condemned
as an “Americanism.” In the United
States guess, in this sense, is supposed to prove
that one comes from north of the Potomac. But
it is heard in many parts of the country, and is
standard where it is used.
To conjecture is to conclude or suppose from
grounds insufficient to ensure reliability. Conjecture
is from a Latin word meaning “to throw
together” and there is in the word still a sense
of a random throw, an arbitrary choice, guided
chiefly by chance, of one opinion from many
possible ones (As long as men have liberty to
examine and contradict one another, one may
partly conjecture, by comparing their words, on
which side the truth is like to lie).
Surmise is very close in meaning to conjecture,
but it sometimes carries a connotation of suspicion,
though not always unfavorable suspicion
(My surmise, that he was not really an important
military man, proved correct. The neighbors
had long surmised that he was much wealthier
than his shabby appearance and mean way of
living suggested).
guide, philosopher, and friend. First applied by
Alexander Pope to Henry St. John, Viscount
Bolingbroke, guide, philosopher, and friend has
now become a pompous cliche if used seriously
and a feeble jest if used facetiously.
guimpe. See gimp.
gun. In English usage and in American traditional
usage a gun is any portable firearm except a
pistol or revolver. In current American usage,
however, a gun is often a pistol or revolver or
automatic (The bulge in the pocket suggested a
gun). An interesting illustration of the manner
in which the meaning of a word lies in its connotations
is supplied by gunman and rifleman.
Though a man’s a man and a rifle is a gun, a
gunman is a sinister character of the underworld
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and a rifleman is a skilled and honorabIe soldier
or an accomplished sportsman.
guts; pluck. Guts is now a coarse word, the mildest
of the four-letter words but outside the
realm of polite usage. It once had dignity (the
Oxford English Dictionary quotes from a 14th
century psalter: Clene hert make in me, God,
and trewe,/ And right gaste in mi guttes newe)
but is now, except when used in its literal sense
of intestines, by fishmongers and hunters, used
metaphorically for courage and fortitude. Even
so, it is felt to be a strong or manly or deliberately
rough word and is avoided by the refined.
Those who avoid it, however, often use the
word pluck (more in use among the English
than in America) without knowing that it is an
old word for the viscera of an animal.
In American slang guts means impudence
more often than courage (He’s got his guts,
coming in here without knocking), though the
two qualities are related. Gut, except when used
anatomically to denote the alimentary canal
between the pylorus and the anus or, as a verb,
to remove the intestines, is a slang word, a
facetious back-formation from guts (as in Z
thought I’d bust a gut laughing at his antics).
See also belly; sand.
guy. Guy Fawkes was the man employed by the
conspirators in the famous English Gunpowder
Plot to blow up King James I and all the memhers
of Parliament on November 5, 1605. The
plot was discovered and most of those implicated
were apprehended and executed. Fawkes
became a symbol of hatred and November the
fifth is still celebrated in England as Guy
Fawkes Day. One of the features of this day
is the burning of an effigy, “the guy,” a
grotesque figure of old clothes stuffed with straw
or rags. It is customary for children to drag the
guy around with them for several days before
the fifth, singing songs and demanding coppers.
Hence guy, in England, means anyone SO
grotesque in appearance that he or she might
be compared to one of these effigies.
In American usage the noun guy has no sense
of disparagement and may derive from a wholly
different word. It simply means man, fellow,
chap-indeed any male who may be spoken of
without especial respect or reverence. In American
usage a regular guy is a complimentary term,
implying that the one complimented is one of
the people, in no way blighted by any innate or
acquired excellences. In England the phrase
would mean a veritable freak, an absolute fright,
a truly grotesque person.
The verb to guy, however, has the same meaning
in the United States that it has in Englandto
make fun of (His fraternity brothers guyed
him unmercifully about his failure to get a date
with her). The verb is not used excessively but
the noun, though (like the verb) not standard,
must be one of the most frequently used words
in America. It is a lazy man’s word, reducing all
adult males to simulacra among whom there
is no need to make any distinction. Thomas
Wolfe, who gloried in words more than almost