TIL that the very word "guy" may have first entered the lexicon as a common word following Guy Fawkes' famous attempt at blowing up parliament and assassinating King James I.
It was a name, that became a celebratory term on November 5th, to a common word for young males, to a more generic term for any people or individuals.
Went down this rabbit hole due to a completely random DM from nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 who was curious if i knew... Now i know 🤣
"Bonfire night", every year in the UK, traditionally celebrated with fireworks 🧨 💥
Was he one of the good guys or the bad guys ? 😉
The guys😎
What did you think was the origin of these names and words before that, to the extent that you did? Did you think your name was just the word "guy" turned into a name? Even if it didn't ever come to your mind maybe you had some half-baked unexamined explanation in the background.
he actually said it the other way, the word became a common name for person like we have dude and bro and mate and buddy and bloke and chelovek and chovek and hombre and man
also, there are other names that became generic pronouns too, like John, which applies to ex boyfriends and clients of prostitutes both, and jack, not sure if that one only happened after the song, and mac, that is a common one from new york i think, and then there is appellatives like Junior and Senior and Son and Grandpa haha
I guess I always just assumed (without much questioning) that it was a term that likely meant something else or was more specific that later was used as a name and became a broader term over time. Like “guy” was a literal name for a place or generally male specific tool or some shit like that.
Swann was similar to that and also Gunn (both words first) which is the Scottish clan that Swann originated from. For some reason I never thought much about my first name and where it originated. My curiosity was always focused on tracing last names through the generations.
