Noun or adjective corresponding, respectively, to the U.S. redhead and redheaded or red-haired. Also a nickname for a ginger person (equivalent to U.S. Red) as in drummer Ginger Baker or singer Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell (impressively, the second consecutive Spice Girls reference in NOOBs).
The term first appeared on my radar when, in London in 2004, I read this sentence in the Daily Telegraph: “The ginger asthmatic was always going to struggle in Coimbra’s oppressive heat.” I eventually figured out that this was a reference to footballer Paul Scholes–and “the ginger asthmatic” still ranks as my favorite all-time example of the class of misguided synonym that H.W. Fowler referred to as “elegant variation.”
Undoubtedly, the term gained traction in the U.S. with the popularity of the Harry Potter books. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, “Scabior, Fenrir Greyback, and a drunk man on Tottenham Court Road” all referred to Harry Potter’s famously ginger-haired mate Ron Weasely by this term.
Members of a Newcastle family that was forced to move in 2007 because of anti-ginger harassment
The term has a long and sometimes unsettling history in Britain. According to Wikipedia (don’t judge me! there are footnotes!)
A UK woman recently won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair;[55] a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair;[56] and in 2003, a 20 year old was stabbed in the back for “being ginger”.[57] In May 2009, a British schoolboy committed suicide after being bullied for having red hair.[58] The British singer Mick Hucknall, who believes that he has repeatedly faced prejudice or been described as ugly on account of his hair color, argues that Gingerism should be described as a form of racism.
Ginger prejudice arrived in the U.S. in 2005 with an episode of the animated comedy series “South Park” entitled “Ginger Kids.” In the episode, a satire on racial and other sorts of prejudice, “Cartman rallies all other ginger kids to rise up and assume their role as the master race” (in the words of the series website). As is often the case with satire, there were unintended consequences. A 14-year-old Vancouver boy started a Facebook group devoted to “National Kick a Ginger Day”; it attracted almost 5,000 members, and the founder was eventually investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for possible hate crimes
Marc Torsilieri, who looked like a ginger-bearded lumberjack and played the part in splendid fashion by annually felling the Christmas tree for Rockefeller Center, died on March 12 in Somerville, N.J. (Douglas Martin, New York Times, March 17, 2007)/Scarlett Johansson, who is now a ginger, and Donald Trump. Really, I would love to know what’s being said here. “Scarlett, I’d like to bring you back to the Trump Tower so I could tell you you’re fired while we make love on a bearskin rug.” “OH DONALD YOU’RE TOO MUCH! HAHAHAH, don’t you know I’m with Sean Penn now?!” (photo caption, BostonHerald.com, May 1, 2011)
This was the 2010 BrE-to-AmE Word of the Year on my blog:
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2010/12/words-of-year-2010.html
But the more insulting BrE pronunciation (rhymes with ‘singer’) seems not to have made it to the US–not even to South Park.
Thanks, Lynne. I also came across a reference to the shortened form “ginge.” Surely that doesn’t rhyme with “sing”?
My grandmother, a UK-born ginger who emigrated when she was 19, can testify to the maltreatment of gingers. She was teased mercilessly through her entire childhood – by adults and children – for her red hair. My grandfather, a Yank stationed in England, loved her hair — she thought he was crazy. She couldn’t believe it when she moved to the US and people made such a fuss over her beautiful hair!!! Her ginger brother and sister also eventually emigrated to the US to avoid persecution.
The first time I used the term in front of my husband he shot me a look. Born in England, his family moved here when he was a small boy, but his grandfather used a lot of Cockney.
My husband said “ginger” is Cockney for queer. As in “Ginger beer = Queer.”
‘Ginge’ rhymes with ‘singe’ but I think people sometimes vary the vowel to make it sound worse.
The persecution of ‘gingers’ in England is not unrelated to the fact that red hair is perceived as a Irish or Scottish trait.
(And ‘ginge’ rhymes with ‘dinge’ and ‘whinge’ [BrE for 'whine, complain']. So it has some fairly negative sound-symbolic value.
It seems to be like the U.S. dumb blond jokes but with a really nasty edge.
when used in a derogatory way (which I don’t approve of having a soft spot for red headed men) the initial G is often hardend and the ing is sounded as the last part of ending.
im a read head or ‘ginger’ as the brits call it, im irish bred but moved to australia when i was 3. i can tell you i would love to be called ginger over the derogitary ‘ranga’ (as in orangatun) that Australian’s love to use. i was teased mercilessly at school as is every red headed child and adault in Australia, treatment here is easily equal to that which occurs the UK. there is a tv show here which probably coined the term ranga several years ago and it is now acceptable to call any read head this at any time. infact our prime minister has even being called this many times by the oposition in parliment!! the abuse of gingers here has even been spearheaded by government groups with main roads victoria making a commercial to reduce road fatality’s saying “everytime you use your phone while driving two gingers get fresh with each other”. what this has to do with anything except to suggest that we should support the push to stop gingers breeding is beyond me. so as bad as things have gotten in the UK believe me they are just as bad in Australia. it gives me some small hope to hear things are not as bad in the US for us red heads, maybe i will move there, though im sure soon enough the persicution will be rampant there aswell.
I recall that back in the hysterical days of the Inquisitiion, and perhaps earlier, it was put about that red hair was a sign of the devil. This would explain the worldwide persecution of redheads through the centuries, and which probably made relations between the British and the Celts (whose red hair is actually a result of their Viking heritage) of Scotland and Eire.
I know this is being nit-picky and way off topic, but “the Celts” of which you speak were actually the pre-Roman, and pre-Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of Britain (as much as the modern Welsh and Irish like to think they’re purely Celtic). The Vikings didn’t invade Britain until about 400-1000 years later…so the Celts didn’t have Viking heritage. Sorry to be so picky.
I should qualify that by saying many Irish and Scottish people have Nordic ancestry, but that came later than the Celts.
I do hope that nobody thinks that I was actually present during the Inquisition, which I was not, as the TARDIS has not yet stopped at my home for boarding….
Being mean to people with red hair is a nasty little social convulsion that I suspect has its roots in something very, very old. Redheads are bad luck in many old European cultures (don’t allow then on ships, they’re bad luck) and red hair has , confusingly, also been associated with antisemitism (on the medieval stage, the evil Jew was traditionally read-haired and red-bearded.
Ginger prejudice is by no means universal in Britain but TV jokes about ginger prejudice make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. A bit like the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment. Great exposition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVN_0qvuhhw
Just one moment! Has the world forgotten Miss Rogers?
I do like the French pronunciation for ginger which essentially sounds like “johnjohn” – I don’t think it has to have a negative connotation when spoken with a French accent…
I think Lynne may have been thinking of that other splendid English insult: “Minger” (pronounced as in “singer”), meaning an ugly person; the base verb being “to ming”. Ginger does not work the same way.
The pronunciation of ‘ginger’ that rhymes with ‘minger’ is a play on that. It’s recent, but it does exist.
Where are you getting this from Lynne? Ginger never rhymes with minger. Well, not in England at least.
The other vaguely related and interesting word is “minge”. (With no “minger” noun or [mindger] pronunciation. Has that crossed the pond yet?
Regularly used a few years ago in SE England to refer to Chris Evans, for one. Just because you haven’t heard it doesn’t mean no one’s said it!
Language Hat covered this some, see comments at: http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002911.php