#161 Gussie

The other night one of us around the household got a little more dressed up than the others as we were about to go out to dinner. One of the not-so-dressed-up people then made sarcastic mention of the dressed-up one getting “all gussied up.” Naturally, being a student of that fine language we call English but should really go by the name American, or, if you are even more verbally anal, United States-ian, I wondered where the heck the word “gussied” came from. Perhaps it’s the whole phrase “gussied up” I should have wondered about, since you never hear of someone being gussied down or gussied sideways.
I went to an online slang dictionary and it was no help. “For shizzle” et al were included but old slang terms like “gussied up” and “that was hairy” and “twitchin” were sadly absent. I then went to an etymological dictionary to trace the origin of the term. No luck, can’t get an origin if they don’t even list the word. Ah, I thought, an orphan word. No origin, no slang family. So I checked the online dictionary and voila, there it was. The listing read: “gussied up; true origin unknown (what did I tell you) speculated to possibly relate to the earlier use of the term Gussie (derived from a proper name) for effeminate man.” Interesting, I thought, the first time I remember hearing the word, Minnie Pearl was holding forth at the Grand Old Opry about her sister getting all gussied up.
The online dictionary listed as synonyms for gussied up “tricked out” and “fancied up” and just plain “gussie.” Fancied up I get, but tricked out? That’s listed in my slang dictionary as a synonym for pimped out. So, “Man, why are you getting all gussied up?” has been replaced by “Dude, how come you’re so pimped out?”
Each of the synonyms was highlighted in the dictionary. That’s one great thing I like about online dictionaries, following word trails doesn’t involve hefting giant volumes and riffling potential paper-cut engendering pages. I clicked the link for gussie and discovered that gussie was an Australian term for an effeminate man and that it derived from Augustus. Augustus, as you may know, was the fellow who re-conquered Rome and half the known world and became its first emperor. Delicate fellow.
I X-ed out of my dictionary in disgust. Australian English is even worse than United states-ian
America ya gotta love it.