*Gabbary A military prison near Alexandria, a gaol.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Gadget  Any article, but chiefly a tool of some sort.

General. From 1886 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

OED defines this as being ‘[u]sed as an indefinite or general name for: a comparatively small fitting, contrivance, or piece of mechanism’.

Gag  An insincere reason; an idea; a joke.

General. From 1805 (OED).

This originally was used in the sense of ‘a deception, lie’, but later came to mean ‘a joke, jest’.  Partridge notes that its use in the sense of ‘an excuse, dodge’ is a 20th century military term, ‘often heard in the army in World War I.’

Game  Courageous, prepared to attempt what may be put before one.

General. From 1727 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This is found in the Australian phrase, ‘game as Ned Kelly’ meaning ‘very spirited or brave’.

*Gas-gong  Boy, from the French ‘garçon’.

World War I. Corruption of the French. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

*Gasometer  Respirator.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Gasper  Cigarette.

General. From 1914 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

Partridge dates this to 1912 as a military term popularised during World War I. It originally referred to an inferior cigarette, one that made the smoker ‘gasp’.

I’ve been making a study of issue fags, or ‘gaspers’ as they are vulgarly termed, and I would be glad if somebody would enlighten me on a certain point, which has puzzled me a lot. Who named the different brands?

1918 Kia Ora Coo-ee No. 4 October 15 p. 5

Gay and Frisky  Whisky.

General. Rhyming slang from the late 19th century (Partridge).

Geek  Look.

General Australian. From 1919 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

Digger Dialects is the first recorded instance of this. ‘Geek’ is originally of British dialect origin, widely distributed across English dialects, often in the form ‘keek’.

*General Webb’s Entanglement  Web equipment.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Military webbing consisted of a heavy fabric that was used to make belts, straps, harnesses and other parts of the soldier’s equipment.

*Get  ‘Get you in one’; ‘I get you, Steve’; ‘Get you in large lumps’. To understand.

General. Originally US. From 1907 (Lighter). Attested in numerous sources.

Get an Eyefull See ‘Eyefull’.

Get One’s Guts in a Knot  Give way to anger.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

This is similar to such phrases as ‘get one’s balls in an uproar’ (Green).

*Get the Strength, or Strong, of  Become possessed of sufficient information to enable one to form [a] correct judgement in regard of the matter in question.

General Australian. ‘Get the strength of’ from 1904; ‘strong of’ from 1915, ‘get the strong of’ from 1923 (AND).

This is a specific use of ‘strength’, ‘the demonstrative force of an argument’ (AND).

Get well fucked  An exclamation expressing disgust and suggesting an unpleasant course of action to the person in question or a poor opinion of him.

General. This particular expression not well attested, but Green records ‘get fucked’ as current from the middle of the 19th century.

*Gezumpher  A big shell.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

 

*Gibbit  Give. (Pidgin English)

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Giddy  A boy scout. Abbreviation of ‘giddy gout’.

Australian rhyming slang. Attested in Digger Dialects, Green, and Partridge.

This is rhyming slang, adapted from the children’s rhyme, ‘giddy giddy gout, your shirt’s hanging out’.

Giggle House  A lunatic asylum.

General Australian. From 1919 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

Digger Dialects is the first recorded evidence of this term.

Ginner  See ‘Bluey’.

Not otherwise recorded.

Gippo  A native of Egypt.

A variant of ‘gippy’, general military from 1889 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

‘Gippo’, ‘gippy’, ‘gyppo’, and other variants were commonly used to refer to Egyptians from 1889 by the British. In World War I, the term had some currency among the troops stationed there. Partridge notes that by World War II, it had come to refer to ‘Arabs’ in general. The ‘gippo’/ ‘gyppo’ variant may well be Australian.

When by Gib. and by Suez and by Aden,

   And the land where the Gippo drinks hops,

The steamers all heavily laden

   To the land where the Kangaroo hops;

Look out, you cold-footed slackers

   Who never left Aussy or home,

For the rockets and bonfires and crackers,

   When our boys come marching home.

1917 Hyde Park Barracks October 1 p. 17

Give it a Fly  To make the attempt. To try a certain course of action.

See Fly (2).

Give it a Passage  ‘Throw it away’.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Give Your Arse a Chance  Shut your mouth, stop talking.

World War I Australian. Attested in Partridge.

*Glassy Eye  A look of disappointment.

This sense attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

‘Glassy’ and ‘the glassy eye’ is an Australian term defined by Dennis as ‘a glance of cold disdain’. It is also recorded in Lawson as ‘a cold stare’. This sense is attested in several sources.

Glim  A light. Probably a corruption of ‘gleam’.

General. From 1700 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This term for ‘a light of any kind’ is a slang term, and seems to have its origins in a lantern used by thieves.

Glimmer  ‘The Eye’.

General. From 1814 (OED).

This is a term for ‘eyes’ but it is not well attested.

*Go Crook  Become angry or abusive.

General Australian. From 1910 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

*Goddam-Guy  An American.

This sense attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Both ‘goddam[n]’ and ‘guy’ are well attested Americanisms. This may have been a short-lived term referring to US soldiers.

*Goggle-eyed  Dazed.

General. From 1919 (OED).

This is a figurative use of the standard ‘goggle-eyed’ meaning ‘having prominent, staring or rolling eyes; also, squint-eyed’ from 1382 (OED).

*Goldies  Teeth.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Gone West  Died; gone to the unknown. This term is probably a relic of pioneering days in Australia and America when those who travelled west and still further westward into the unknown country were not heard of by their friends until they returned, if that ever happened.

General World War I. Attested in numerous sources, usually as ‘(to) go west’.

This term has an older history, but was certainly popularised in World War I (Partridge). F&G suggest that the term was applied more broadly, and might also refer to something that had disappeared or had gotten lost. They note some examples of its use: ‘Poor Bill went West yesterday, a sniper got him’; ‘my leave’s gone West’; ‘my mess-tin (or anything else down to a bootlace) has gone West’.

On returning from leave he [Captain Shepherd, Royal Flying Corps] heard that his best friends had ‘gone west,’ as they say, three days before. His friends tried to dissuade him from doing anything rash, but the next day, when he was out leading three other planes, twelve Germans appeared, and he drove straight into the thick of them.

1917 Anzac Bulletin No. 35 September 5 p. 11

 

Good, to make  To succeed, to pull through, to deliver the goods, to carry out one’s promise.

General. From 1535 (OED).

*Good Bloke  See ‘Freeze-A’.

This sense attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Good Guts  Information. Similarly, ‘good oil’.

General Australian. From 1919 (AND).

This term, first attested in Digger Dialects, may well have originated as a World War I term. See also Guts.

Good Oil  True information.

General World War I. Australian. From 1916 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

‘Oil’ meaning ‘information’ dates to 1915, but is often used with a qualifying epithet, such as ‘good’ or ‘dinkum’.

Goosed  Spoilt.

General. From 1859 (Partridge).

This is used in the verb form, ‘to ruin, spoil utterly’.

*Go to the Kennel  Shut up, take yourself off.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

*Go to the Pack  Deteriorate.

General Australian. From 1919 (AND).

Digger Dialects is the first recorded instance of this phrase. This was related to ‘go to the dogs’, current from the middle of the 19th century, and meaning, similarly, ‘to decline socially, to become rundown, dirty’ (Green).

Go Your Hardest  Do your worst or best, as the case may be.

This sense only attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Arthur and Ramson note in Digger Dialects: ‘In the positive sense the expression is in general currency; in the ironic sense recorded by Downing it is apparently Australian’.

Grandma

World War I. Attested in numerous sources.

This was a nickname for the first British howitzer behind Ypres (Cutlack, F&G). It was later applied to other big howitzers (Dickson, F&G, and Partridge).

*Grappling Irons  Spurs.

Originally US. From the late 19th century (Green). Attested in Green and Lighter.

While Green and Lighter record this, it is not a widely attested term.

Grass  (1) Issue tobacco. (2) Hair. (Papuan Pidgin English)

(1) Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

(2) General. From 1910s (Green).

Greasy  A cook or butcher.

General Australian. From 1873 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

This term is especially applied to one who cooks for a large number of people, such as on a sheep or cattle station, and thus came to be applied to an army cook.

*Greasies Anti-aircraft  A field cooker.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Greenies  Abbreviation of ‘green envelope’, a specially printed envelope in which soldiers might despatch correspondence without being subject to Unit censorship.

General World War I. Attested in B&P, Digger Dialects, and F&G.

F&G provide the following explanation: ‘The usual name in the War for the ordinary Army envelope, issued to men for writing home (from its colour). The letters in these were liable to censorship, first by an officer of the writer’s unit and then also at the Base, and were handed in unfastened. For letters on specially private affairs, which the writer might not wish his officer to see, another kind of Green Envelope was issued periodically, in regard to which the writer had to certify ‘on honour’ that the letter contained no military information. Such letters were liable only to censorship at the Base. These Green Envelopes, being in demand among married men in particular, were often procured illegitimately by others and traded in, ‘Green Envelope Wallah’ being the name for the sellers.’

Grouse  Grumble.

General. The verb is army from 1887; the noun was used from 1918 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

A popular military term, which obviously had good reason to be used widely during World War I.

Grouser  One who frequently grouses.

General army. From 1885 (OED).

See Grouse.

Grouter  The acquisition of something for nothing, or on extremely favorable terms.

General Australian. From 1902 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

This was frequently used in the phrase ‘come in on the grouter’ (which is probably what is being thought of here) and often used in a two-up context.

Gun-fodder  (1) Men and Horses. (2) Ammunition.

(1) Military. From 1900 (OED).

This is used in the same sense as ‘cannon-fodder’, ‘men regarded merely as material to be consumed in war’ (OED).

(2) World War I. Attested in Partridge.

*Guts  (1) The entrails. (2) Courage, determination. (3) The substance or essential part of a matter; information.

(1) General. From ca. 1000 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

(2) General. From 1893 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

(3) General Australian. From 1919 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

See also Good Guts.

Both (2) and (3) are figurative uses of (1).

Gutzer  (1) Removal from office; the removal from a comfortable appointment to one more or less remunerative. (2) A fall physically. (3) The failure of a scheme.  The term originated amongst swimmers as descriptive of a dive in which the diver instead of striking the water with hands head or feet first strikes with his stomach. A painful experience.

(1) A figurative use of (2), attested here but not otherwise recorded in this specific sense.

(2) Along with the figurative use (3), this was an Australian term, from 1918 (AND).

(3) Figurative use of (2), Australian from 1918 (AND).

Partridge suggests the literal sense of ‘gutzer’ as ‘a heavy fall’ was around from 1905. The figurative senses date from World War I and generally referred to ‘a failure, disappointment’.