Gin
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
gin¹
- /d͡ʒɪn/
Sounds like djinn · Rhymes with -ɪn
Where it comes from
Abbreviation of geneva, alteration of Dutch genever (“juniper”) from Old French genevre (modern French genièvre), from Vulgar Latin ziniperus, from Latin iūniperus (“juniper”). Hence gin rummy (first attested 1941).
noun gins
- A colourless non-aged alcoholic liquor made by distilling fermented grains such as barley, corn, oats or rye with juniper berries; the base for many cocktails.
- Gin rummy.
- Drawing the best card or combination of cards. Johnny Chan held jack-nine, and hit gin when a queen-ten-eight board was dealt out.
gin²
- /d͡ʒɪn/
Sounds like djinn · Rhymes with -ɪn
Where it comes from
Partly from Middle English gin, ginne (“cleverness, scheme, talent, device, machine”), from Old French gin, an aphetism of Old French engin (“engine”); and partly from Middle English grin, grine (“snare, trick, stratagem, deceit, temptation, noose, halter, instrument”), from Old English grin, gryn, giren (“snare, gin, noose”).
noun gins
- A trick; a device or instrument.
- A scheme; contrivance; artifice; a figurative trap or snare. The church dores were sparred, Fast boltyd and barryd, Yet wyth a prety gyn I fortuned to come in, […]
- A snare or trap for game. It was the cry of a rabbit caught in a gin.
- A machine for raising or moving heavy objects, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys, ropes, etc.
- A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.
- A pile driver.
- A windpump.
- A cotton gin.
- An instrument of torture worked with screws.
verb gins · ginning · ginned
- To remove the seeds from cotton with a cotton gin.
- To trap something in a gin.
gin³
- /ɡɪn/
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English ginnen (“to begin”), contraction of beginnen.
verb gins · ginning · gan · gun
- To begin. Gon. All three of them are deſperate : their great guilt / (Like poyſon giuen to worke a great time after) / Now gins to bite the ſpirits :[…]
gin⁴
- /d͡ʒɪn/
Sounds like djinn · Rhymes with -ɪn
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Dharug dyin (“woman”), but having acquired a derogatory tone.
noun gins
- An Aboriginal woman. His next shot was discharged amongst the mob, and most unfortunately wounded the gin already mentioned ; who, with a child fastened to her back, slid down the bank, and lay, apparently dying, with her legs in the water.
gin⁵
- /ɡɪn/
Where it comes from
Cognate to Scots gin (“if”): perhaps from gi(v)en, or a compound in which the first element is from Old English ġif (English if) and the second is cognate to English an (“if”) (compare iffen), or perhaps from again.
conjunction
- If. […]for pronouncing according as one would ſay at London I would eat more cheeſe if I had it, the Northern man ſaith, Ay ſuld eat mare cheeſe gin ay hadet, and the Weſterne man ſaith Chud eat more cheeſe an chad it.
Gin⁶
Where it comes from
A Hanyu Pinyin-esque romanization of Vietnamese Kinh (京).
noun Gins · Jing
- An ethnic Vietnamese, in reference to those whose lands are in China.
