Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 August 12

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 12

Whack up a ginger

What does “whack up a ginger” (if I’m hearing it correctly) mean? In context it seems to be “screw up one’s courage” but it’s such an odd phrase I’d like to know more. See: Jeeves and Wooster, E01, 28 minutes in. Temerarius (talk) 16:33, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

@Temerarius: I think the relevant article is Gingering. › Mortee _talk 16:35, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

The phrase used is "whack up the ginger"; entering that on a popular web search engine will give you plenty of results. In particular, this site says summon up the courage or spirit; originally American slang. As late as 1909 an OED citation from Britain calls “ginger” an Americanism. Henry^Flower 20:38, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

EO dates the use of ginger to mean "spirit, spunk, temper" to 1843.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:58, 12 August 2018 (UTC)