gin
noun
- spirit
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331828 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɡɪn/
conj
Etymology: Cognate to Scots gin (“if”): perhaps from gi(v)en, or a compound in which the first element is from Old English ġif (English if) and the second is cognate to English an (“if”) (compare iffen), or perhaps from again.
- If.
“[…]for pronouncing according as one would ſay at London I would eat more cheeſe if I had it, the Northern man ſaith, Ay ſuld eat mare cheeſe gin ay hadet, and the Weſterne man ſaith Chud eat more cheeſe an chad it.”
“Gin the plough rests on the bank, / The loom, the nation, dies.”
noun
Etymology: A Hanyu Pinyin-esque romanization of Vietnamese Kinh (京).
- An ethnic Vietnamese, in reference to those whose lands are in China.
verb
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English ginnen (“to begin”), contraction of beginnen.
- To begin.
“Gon. All three of them are deſperate : their great guilt / (Like poyſon giuen to worke a great time after) / Now gins to bite the ſpirits :[…]”