The Bible in Spain - Volume II Part 29
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Volume II Part 29

GALLEGO. _Span._ and _Port._ Galician; usually Anglicized by Borrow as Gallegan. The Roman _Gallaeci_ or _Callaeci_.

GALLINERIA. _Span._ A hen-coop; a place for keeping _gallinas_, or chickens.

GALOOT (_Galuth_). _Hebr._ Bondage, captivity. "The galoot of sin."

In the slang of the United States the word means "a simpleton."

GARBANZOS. _Span._ Chick-pease (_Cicer arietinum_). The invariable vegetable in every _olla_ and _puchero_.

GARLOCHIN. _Rom._ Heart. See CARLO.

GARNATA. _Arab._ Granada. See MELEGRANA.

GARROTE. _Span._ and _Port._ The death penalty by strangulation, in which an iron collar fixed to a post is tightened by a screw and receives the neck of the culprit, which is broken by a sharp turn given by the executioner. _Garrote_ also means a cudgel, or heavy walking-stick; and the tourniquet used by surgeons. It is a word of strange and uncertain etymology, and is said to be connected with Span. _garra_, a claw, Fr.

_jarret_, a thigh, and other apparently incongruous words.

GAZPACHO. A dish in the nature of a vegetable salad very popular in Spain, made of bread, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, _garbanzos_ or chick-peas, with oil and seasoning of various kinds. The etymology is uncertain.

GEFATURA. _Span._ Office of the following.

GEFE. _Span._ Chief. _Gefe politico_ = _corregidor_, _q.v._

GELABA. _Arab._ A long cloak. Arab. _jilbab_.

GENIO. _Span._ and _Port._ Genius; spirit.

GENOUI, dimin. GENOUILLOS. Moor. A Genoese, Genoese children.

GENTE, JENTE. _Span._ and _Port._ People.

GERMANiA. _Span._ According to the dictionaries, the dialect or mode of speech used by gypsies, thieves, and ruffians, to prevent their being understood, in which they give special meanings to ordinary words (e.g.

_aguila_, eagle = a clever thief), or invent words of their own (e.g.

_almifor_ = horse). No doubt _Germania_ contains gypsy words, but it is no more identical with Romany than are the Fr. _Argot_ or the Eng.

_Cant_. See Z. ii. 129.

GIBIL. _Arab._ A hill.

GINETE. _Span._ A good horseman. _a la gineta_, in the Moorish style (of riding). Diez, strangely enough, would derive this Arab or Moorish word from the Grk. ???t??, a naked or light-armed foot soldier. It is really derived from the proper name Zeneta, a Berber tribe who furnished the finest hors.e.m.e.n to the Spanish Moors (Cron. Alfonso X., fo. 6 d, an.

1263). In Catalan the word has become _janetz_. Our English word "jennet" may be derived from the same source.

GIRAR. _Span._ and _Port._ To turn round.

GITANA. _Thieves' slang_. Twelve ounces of bread. See i. 177.

GITANO. _Span._ A gypsy. A corrupted form of _Egiptiano_, an Egyptian.

R. 269; McR. 109. See ZINCALO.

G.o.dO. _Span._ and _Port._ A Goth; Gothic.

GOH. _Pers._ Mountain. More correctly, _koh_.

GONFALONIERA. _Ital._ Standard-bearer.

GRA, GRAS, GRASTE, GRY. _Rom._ A horse. P. ii. 145; A. 33; Pp. 249; M.

vii. 58.

GRACIA. _Span._ GRATIA. _Lat._ Grace.

GRANJA. _Span._ A grange, farm. _La Granja_, the royal palace at San Ildefonso.

GRECO. _Ital._ GRIEGO. _Span._ Greek.

GUAPO, GUAPITO. _Span._ and _Port._ Gay, neat, clever, elegant, gallant.

GUARDACOSTAS. _Span._ A revenue cutter.

GUARDIA. _Span._ A guard, watch.

GUERILLA. _Span._ Lit. little war. Irregular warfare to which the Spaniards have ever been so much addicted. The _guerrillero_ is the irregular soldier, or armed _paisano_, who wages this little war.

GUERRA. _Span._ War.

GUISSAN. _Basque_. According to. It is an adaptation of the Fr.

_guise_, Span. _guisa_. The regular Basque words are _arabera_, _araura_. Aizquibel, Basque-Spanish Dict., gives the form _gisara_.

GURSeAN. _Moor._ The giant aloe. Span. _pita_. _Apud_ Borrow, ii.

276.

GUSTO. _Span._ (1) Taste, lit. or fig. (2) Fancy, caprice, wish.

HABER. _Span._ To have. _Hay_, there are. _No hay mas_? Are there no more?

HABLA. _Span._ Speech.

HABLAR. _Span._ To speak. Lat. _fabulare_.

HACER. _Span._ To do, make. _El hara el gusto por V_, He will do what you want.

HADA, HADE. _Arab._ This.

HAIK. _Arab._ A white cloth worn over the head by the Moors.

HAIMAS. _Arab._ Tents. More correctly, _?aimat_, plur. _?iyam_.

HAJI. _Arab._, _Turk._, and _Grk._ One who having made the _haj_, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, is ent.i.tled to wear a green turban and a.s.sume the t.i.tle of _haji_. But the same t.i.tle, strange to say, is a.s.sumed by orthodox Christians who have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and _Haji Yanco_ is quite as common a t.i.tle or mode of address in the Levant as _Haji Ibrahim_.

HALAL. _Arab._ Lawful.