Why is it that gal is the feminine equivalent of guy?
And what’s the story with guy, for that matter?
I’d always assumed that the word guy comes from the name, now not so common in English. Coming from the French Guillaume (William), I guess that it was once such a common first name that, like Dick and Jack before it, it became synonymous with the average man.
That’s not quite the case. The use of guy in this way comes directly from Guy Fawkes, executed for being part of the English Gunpowder Plot to blow up parliament. Since then, English children have burned an effigy of him, known simply as a guy, on Bonfire Night. These effigies were traditionally made to look grotesque, so guy came to be used to mean grotesque-lookig fellow, to just fellow over time. (And Guy is derived from Norman-French translations of the Italian Guido: Guy Fawkes in fact sometimes signed his name as Guido Fawkes).
Gal is even simpler. It simply means girl, and is derived from the old English word… girl! Yep, it’s just a slang pronunciation of the word girl. When you think about it, it’s not so different from how girl is correctly pronounced by someone with a non-rhotic accent, like an English person. It originally came about in England in the 18th century as a deliberately exaggerated pronunciation of girl. Over time, it became a distinct word in itself.
It’s perhaps now more common in American English because American accents are mostly rhotic. This means that the R in the word girl is pronounced, and it’s therefore probably less obvious that gal and girl were once the same word.
As for why gal is the feminine equivalent of guy? Well that one’s easy. The meaning is basically the same, just with the genders reversed, and they sound good together because of the alliteration of the two G‘s!
English-Language Thoughts 
It’s funny you decided to do this post because I was just having a discussion about the word “guys” as a gender non-specific. As in, a mixed gender group of people walks in and someone says “hey guys!” and I was told that this is apparently a “Canadian thing”. Lol! I can’t attest to this but, any thoughts on that?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s actually become quite common in Ireland and the UK in recent years. I’m still not sure how it came about, as it obviously doesn’t work with “guy” singular, which in fact often epitomizes masculinity, as in “It’s a guy thing!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are people here who get very offended by it (that’s how the conversation started!) one of my male employees made the mistake of greeting a group of female customers with “hey, guys!” and was then berated for the next 5 minutes about how they were, in fact, not “guys”. I thought this was humorous when I heard about this as, had I not been in the backroom at the time I probably would have done the EXACT same thing but, being female, probably would have received a very different response! Silly how things go!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s interesting in that it seems to be becoming more common generally, but people react to it very differently. There are some who hate it and think it sounds unnatural, and others who don’t even notice that it’s strictly a male term!
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] via Guys and Gals […]
LikeLike
It’s because the English language dominates; it takes hegemonic precedence vis-à-vis the infamous Guide-stones of Georgia (near Atlanta) criticised for their eugenic connotations, occult overtones and exclusivism. The eight languages in question for highlighting the ten teachings promulgated by anonymous mega-rich Americans are English, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Spanish, traditional Chinese, Russian, Swahili, and four for the capstone: Babylonian (cuneiform), classical Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sanskrit. By the way, it’s a mystery to me what happened to the language of Voltaire? Americans usually like and admire France, right? The Statue of Liberty, La Fayette, and other gallant Gallic guys and gals. (Presidents de Gaulle and Macron maybe ain’t so popular?) Half a century ago, Prime Minister Chou Enlai reportedly weighed in on the results of the French Revolution: “It’s too early to tell.”
LikeLike