Talk:ginger

Etymology
It was noted to editors, in the etymological dictionary that has been excised from Wikipedia, that this word is not of Tamil origin. Uncle G 11:27, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

person: commonwealth usage?
Is the 4th noun sense: "A person with reddish-brown hair" a commonwealth usage? I've heard it on Dr. Who but not, as far as I can recall, in thh US. RJFJR 17:45, 20 September 2008 (UTC)


 * You must not watch South Park. They did a whole episode on gingers and their persecutors in Colorado, as a take-off on Nazis and Jews. —Stephen 18:13, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't (gnerally). Thanks for the cite. RJFJR 03:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I suppose that citing South Park might be useful for a relatively recent development of the English language but do you think it has any bearing on individuals like Ginger Baker, who is male and blond, and more famous (in terms of the early 1960s)?  Care to cite a source prior to Tina Louise's role in Gilligan's Island?  It appears the proper etymology is more likely something else, like "Zing", "Zinger" or "Stinger" 216.99.198.133 05:21, 29 May 2012 (UTC)


 * We're not talking about names, which would be capitalized, but about an adjective for hair color. I suspect the usage in the US wasn't terribly widespread (perhaps beauty/fashion contexts), because I don't remember coming into contact with it either. UK usage, on the other hand, seems to be more commonplace. As for personal names, that could come from any of the other senses, too.


 * Okay, in sentences like, "Her hair was very ginger" and "After I went to the auction, I bought a pair of horses.   The mare's was chestnut brown, and the other's was ginger.   So what did I do, but naturally sold the ginger to the glue factory."    You are bound to find some citations somewhere.    Or are you?   Why, I've never used the word ginger to describe a horse.    Maybe somebody somewhere has, but I'm kind of skeptical.   Can you find a citation somewhere? Can you find one that predates the era of Gilligan's Island?    216.99.201.86 08:59, 30 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think Tina Louise's character had much to do with the color sense, since one would expect the usage to be predominately among the TV show's audience in the US, but in reality it's been rare in the US up until South Park popularized it, and much more common in the UK. If you want to have it cited, you're welcome to add a at the end of the definition in question, and start a topic in WT:RFV, but I don't think you'll get very far. A quick check in Google Books brings up this 1912 cite, for instance, and there's lot's more. Chuck Entz (talk) 09:21, 30 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Or how about this one? Chuck Entz (talk) 09:34, 30 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Is this a case of "no sooner said than forgotten"?  At least in Strand magazine, it may have had some currency describing a man's hair.   Is there an instance also of a woman's hair being described that way?  216.99.201.83 00:23, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Request for Verification
ginger Verb: To treat with care.

Presumably associated with gingerly, but not with ginger up or with "to add ginger to". DCDuring TALK 16:29, 11 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I've added several b.g.c. cites that I think demonstrate verb uses related to . They don't actually match our current def: three seem to mean roughly "gingerly go" or "gingerly make (one's way)", one seems to mean "gingerly insert" or "gingerly put"; and one I took to mean "gingerly handle", though on reflection I now think it's probably just a typo for "finger". I'd be fine with removing that one. —Ruakh TALK 03:15, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
 * It seems to be something similar to antimeria: at work, especially given the divergence of meanings. Perhaps "act gingerly", with a "literary" context. DCDuring TALK 11:44, 13 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Except the possible typo (1964), User:Ruakh's citations are good, and his and User:DCDuring's ideas for improving the definition are good. Once the definition has been reworded (based on the quotations in the entry, I suggest "to move gingerly"), this will have been resolved. - -sche (discuss) 00:57, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Cited by Ruakh. I reworded the definition and removed the possible typo. RFV-passed. - -sche (discuss) 05:53, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

RFD discussion: July–August 2016
Flavored with ginger. Seems attributive like the 'tomato' in tomato soup. The color adjectival sense is not being disputed. Renard Migrant (talk) 12:29, 23 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, delete this sense. SemperBlotto (talk) 20:25, 23 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep; it looks like cookbooks on Google Books have recipes for very ginger glazed carrots, very ginger snaps, and very ginger curd. DCDuring TALK 22:10, 23 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Recipe names, like poetry, tend to play games with language, as seen with very berry and very cherry recipes. Chuck Entz (talk) 22:59, 23 July 2016 (UTC)
 * As Widsith recently pointed out, all nouns can stand in for adjectives, like "that's so 1990" and "that's very David Beckham", but not adjectival entries for 1990 or David Beckham. Renard Migrant (talk) 15:46, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete per Renard Migrant and Chuck Entz. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 05:01, 24 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete the sense, but what about the translations? Move those to the noun as an attributive? DonnanZ (talk) 19:59, 24 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep very common in attributive/adjectival use. We do have these type of defs for other nouns used in the same way, e.g. brick, bush, iron, chocolate. These types of defs are standard dictionary fodder. Macquarie Dict., and Dictionary.com have same adj definition for ginger. - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 11:35, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I think a lot of these definitions we have by mistake because of people not knowing what attributive use of a noun is. Chocolate of course is a color hence is an adjective (chocolate-skinned for example). Renard Migrant (talk) 21:12, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Even better, bush claims to be a noun. Which it is of course. Anyway those examples you gave apart form chocolate were blatant enough to be removed. Renard Migrant (talk) 21:16, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
 * RFD failed. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 19:47, 26 August 2016 (UTC)

pronunciation
or even are common pronunciations too, but only for the redhead meaning. --New WT User Girl (talk) 22:42, 2 August 2018 (UTC)


 * 'Tis true. But I think these are only used jokingly, and probably only in Britain (?), basically to make fun of people for their hair colour. (But then you can't rhyme "ginger ninja" so you lose out anyway.) Equinox ◑ 22:44, 2 August 2018 (UTC)
 * "ginger minger" as an insult trumps "ginger ninja" any day of the week. --New WT User Girl (talk) 22:45, 2 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't know as I am a curvaceous brunette. Equinox ◑ 22:47, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

ginger ale, pop
I’ve added the ‘ginger ale’ and ‘pop/soda’ definitions. If you look at the talk page for Irn Bru on Wikipedia then you’ll read suggestions that ‘ginger’ went from meaning ‘ginger ale’ or ‘ginger beer’ in Scotland to meaning pop in general; the term doesn’t seem to come from the colour of Irn Bru but has probably been popularised and reinforced by this association. Overlordnat1 (talk) 11:02, 31 July 2021 (UTC)