''Git'' is a term of insult denoting an unpleasant, silly, incompetent, annoying, senile, elderly or childish person. As a mild oath it is roughly on a par with '' prat'' and marginally less

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

than ''

berk Berk may refer to: * Berk (name), a surname, given name, or any of several people with that name * Berk, Bolu, Turkey, a village * Berk Trade and Business School, New York City * Berk, a fictional island in the ''How to Train Your Dragon'' serie ...

''. Typically a good-natured admonition with a strong implication of familiarity, ''git'' is more severe than '' twit'' or '' idiot'' but less severe than '' wanker'', ''

arsehole The word ''asshole'' (in North American English) or arsehole (in all other major varieties of the English language), is a vulgarism used to describe the anus, and often used pejoratively (as a type of synecdoche) to refer to people. History ...

'' or '' twat'' when offence is intended. The word ''git'' first appeared in print in 1946, but is undoubtedly older. It was popularly used by the British army in the First World War at Gallipoli, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian campaigns where the British would abuse their Turkish adversaries by shouting the vulgar, “siktir git!”; (fuck you) the soldiery (mistakenly) believing that “git” was part of the offensive expression meaning “you” (but in a derogatory way). An alternative suggestion for the etymology is that it is an alteration of the word ''get'', dating back to the 14th century. A shortening of ''beget'', ''get'' insinuates that the recipient is someone's misbegotten offspring and therefore a

bastard Bastard may refer to: Parentage * Illegitimate child, a child born to unmarried parents ** Bastard (law of England and Wales), illegitimacy in English law People People with the name * Bastard (surname), including a list of people with that na ...

. In parts of northern England,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

''get'' is still used in preference to ''git''. The word has been ruled by the Speaker of the House of Commons to be

unparliamentary language Parliaments and legislative bodies around the world impose certain rules and standards during debates. Tradition has evolved that there are words or phrases that are deemed inappropriate for use in the legislature whilst it is in session. In a ...

Notable usage

John Lennon calls

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...

"such a stupid get" in The Beatles song, " I'm So Tired". " Randy Scouse Git" is a song written by

Micky Dolenz George Michael Dolenz Jr. (born March 8, 1945) is an American actor, musician, TV producer and businessman. He is best known as the drummer and one of three primary vocalists for the Pop music, pop-Rock music, rock band the Monkees (1966–1970, ...

in 1967 and recorded by

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

. It was the first song written by Dolenz to be commercially released, and it became a number 2 hit in the UK where it was retitled "Alternate Title" after the record company (RCA) complained that the original title was actually somewhat "taboo to the British audience". It was in self-mocking spirit that

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also ...

named his Git version control system.

References

English, British British English British slang Pejorative terms for people English profanity English words {{english-lang-stub