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The Alphabetary Heraldic

Genealogical Glossary

—G-Gk—

G : [anthropology] Sb; sibling.  Cf. kin types.

G : [Ogham Q-Celtic] gath.[1]

G : goods, as a basis for taxation.  Cf. W, L.

G. : German, Germany.

g. : grand, great.

G.A.R. : Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans who fought in the Civil War.  This defunct society became enormously important and influential in late 1800s and early 1900s, but its criterion for admission ensured its extinction.  The initials may often be seen in graveyards and newspaper accounts.

G.B. : Great Britain.

G.C.B. Civil : Knight of the Grand Cross, Order of the Bath (Civil).

G.C.M.G. : Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.

G.C.V.O. : Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.

G.N.P. : GNP : Gross National Product.

G.R. : grave record.

g.s. : gravestone.

Ga : Gaelic, especially Scottish Gaelic.

Ga. : GA : Georgia.

gaard : [Nw] farm; a grouping of several farms.

gaardmand : [Dn] independent farmer, the owner of a house and grounds.

Gada system of age-grades : Konso age-grades.

gadlings : the knobs or spikes mounted on the knuckles of one’s gauntlets.

gáe bolg : a barbed harpoon launched with one’s foot; a Celtic martial art invented and taught by Scáthach.

Gæa : Gaia : Ge : Gaia : Gh : [Gk] Earth, born from Chaos; the goddess personifying earth, equated with Tellus at Rome.  She was the firstborn of Chaos, and became the mother of Uranus and Pontus.  By an incestuous marriage with her son Uranus, she became the mother of Oceanus, Cronus, and others.[2]  She was the mother of Erechtheus and Tithyus.[3]  She was the mother of Chronos, the Titans, Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handed Giants.  Gaia also became the wife of her son Pontus, and by him became mother to Phorcys and Ceto.  Cf. Tellus.

Gael : Gaelic.

Gaelic : Celtic; the Celtic dialect of Scotland.  Cf. Brythonic, Irish, Welsh.

Gagans : Gorgons.

gai : [1300 Provençal] courtly love,[4] the poetic and arousing love of the troubadour.  The Albigensians fully embraced the troubadour’s courtly love, and were therefore condemned by the Roman church as heretics and homosexuals.  Cf. troubadour.

gai : [Sk] to sing, to relate in metrical language.

gai saber : [Catalan] the art of poesy.[5]

Gaia : Gaea.

Gaia Terratia : the vestal virgin who donated property for the building of Rome.  Cf. Acca Laurentia, nobilissima meretrix.

gàicóngbiăodì : [Ch] FaFaFaSiSoSoSo(y); younger male third cousin, younger proamitin.

gàicóngbiăomèi : [Ch] FaFaFaSiSoSoDa(y); younger female third cousin, younger proamitine.

gàicóngbiăoxiōng : [Ch] FaFaFaSiSoSoSo(e); elder male third cousin, elder proamitin.

gàicóngbiăozĭ : [Ch] FaFaFaSiSoSoDa(e); elder female third cousin, elder proamitine.

gaiol : [Catalan] lover.[6]

galaxy : [Gk] milky way, a stream of light in the night sky consisting of many stars.

Galfredus : Geoffrey.

Galfridus : Geoffrey.

Galla : Cf. amazon army of Galla.

gallant : splendid man; a brave, magnanimous, or high-spirited man; a gay, airy, or sprightly young man; a wooer, one who courts a woman for marriage.

gallantness : elegance, completeness in some acquired skill or qualification.

gallantry : splendor of appearance, magnificence; courtship; refined approaches to women.

galleon : [1580 Pt, Sp] The San Martin was a 1,000-ton ship built for Phillip II of Portugal, and was manned by 150 seamen and gunners, and 400 soldiers.  It was 37.3m x 9.3m (122’3” x 30’5”) in length and beam, and served as the flagship of Spain’s Invincible Armada.  The San Martin survived as one of the 67 ships that returned to Spain, out of an original number of 130 ships that ventured to England in 1588.

galleon : [1608 En] The Prince Royal was build in Phineas Piett.

galleon : [1700 Sp] Neptune, designed by Graham Caddick.  The galleon was built in Tunisia by 2,000 laborers, over 2 years, and purportedly cost $8.2 million.  In length and beam, the Neptune was 62m x 16m (203’ x 52’4”), and it has 4,500 m2 (50,625 ft2) of sail.

galleon : [Nw] The Norwegian Vasa carried 64 cannon.  The cannon were 48x24-pounders weighting 1.5 tons each, and required a crew of 7 gunners to operate.  A single gun could fire 10 shots per hour, which was a good rate of fire.

galleon : a three-mast man-of-war used for exploration and sea battles.  Changes in galleon design often caused changes in the designs of merchant vessels.  Cf. galley, ship.

galley : [1571 Pt] Royal Galley, with 70 oars, and 420 oarsmen.  The brother of Philip II of Portugal used the Royal Galley as his flagship at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), when the Holy League opposed the Turks.  The oars were positioned on a single level, with 35 oars on each side.  Each oar required 6 men to row it, some of whom pushed while others pulled.

galley : [1571 Pt] The largest Royal class had 70 oars, or 35 oars on each side.

galley : [1571 Pt] The medium Capitane class had 60-62 oars, or 30-31 oars on each side.

galley : [1571 Pt] The smallest Patrone class had 56-58 oars, or 28-29 oars on each side.

galley : [1595] A Tudor galley had a length of seven or eight times her beam (L=B*7, L=B*8).[7]  This proportion of length to beam is roughly the same as was used for steamers.  Cf. Sir John Hawkins, ship proportions.

galley : [3000 bc-ad 1717] A Roman tireme, a streamlined galley with 3 banks of rowers, used for sea warfare.  A typical tireme measured 34m x 6m x 3m (112’ x 20’ x 9’9”), had a flat bottom, and a draft of merely 1m (3’3”).  The length was 5.6 times the beam (B*5.6).  Each oar was manned by 2 rowers, and the ship could travel at 10 knots.  The rowers of the uppermost bank were called thranites, those of the middle bank were called zygites, and those of the lowest bank were called thalamites.  The naval galleys were often equipped with bridges designed for boarding enemy ships, and sometimes carried catapults.[8]  Cf. ship.

galley : [ad 500] the Roman dromond, a fast galley with only 1 or 2 banks of oarsmen.  Naval warfare had come to include the use of explosive missiles and incendiary bombs, and therefore the dromond was sometimes covered by leather, or cloth soaked in vinegar, as protection against the flying debris.

galley : galea [It] : a vessel propelled by oars and once typical in the Mediterranean.  Slave labor normally supplied the manpower.

galley : Roman galley.  A typical commercial galley was 53.4m x 14m x 14m (175’ x 45’ x 14m).  The length was nearly four times the beam (L=B*3.889), and the beam equaled the depth (B=D).  The largest galleys had three square sails on three masts, and sometimes had a topsail above the mainsail.

galleys and galleons : row-barges and warships.  Galleys often had a single sail mounted on a single mast, but were propelled mainly by oars for close maneuvering.  Galleons were the three-mast men-of-war used for exploration and sea battles, and changes in galleon design often caused changes in merchant vessels.

galliard : the quick and lively five-step or cinquepace dance.  The galliard was danced at celebrations, so it occasioned much levity and interaction.  Cf. coranto, lavolta.  Opp. pavan.

galloping consumption : rapidly progressive tuberculosis.[9]

gallowglass : a mercenary foot soldier.[10]

gallows : pleas of gallows.[11]  Cf. furcas.

Galterus : Walter.

Galworna : Gloucester.

gam- : [Gk] marriage.

gambeson : wambais, a long padded coat coming down to the knees which could with­stand arrows, but not the cross-bow bolts used by the Crusaders.  The gambeson was a close-fitting tunic, quilted with stuffings of wool, rags, or tow.[12]  Cf. haketon, hobille, jack.

Game of the Chase : Buck, Doe, and Fox.

Game of the Forest : Hart, Hind, and Hare.

Game of the Warren : Rabbit, Pheasant, and Partridge.

gamete : [1886] a mature male or female germ cell that fuses with a gamete of the opposite sex to form an embryo.  Cf. egg, spermatozoid, spermatozoon.

gametogenesis : [1900] the production of gametes at 0 years minus 9/12 years; the first period of prenatal change; the initial stage of progressive individuation.  Cf. individuation.

gammal : [Sw] old, aged.

gammel : [Dn, Nw] old, aged.

-gamy : [Gk] marriage, coniugium, matrimonium, nuptiæ.

gander : [Sx] male goose.

gangrene : [Gk] mortification; a stoppage of circulation that progresses to putrefaction.

ganwyd : [We] born.

Ganymede : [Gk] Er; Catamitus [Lt], the beautiful boy who was carried off by a god disguised as an eagle, and who served the god as his cupbearer; the boy once called Erichthonius.[13]  Traditionally, the god has been identified as Zeus, but some legends report that the god was Minos.[14]

Ganymede and Helen : the cupbearer Zeus abducted, and the beauty Helen of Troy, who was abduced by Paris of Sens.  In the middle ages, these two mortals were widely regarded to have been the most lucious boy in the world, and the most beautiful woman.  Cf. Altercatio Ganimedis et Helene.

Ganymedes : Ganymede : the proper name perhaps derived from gánymai ‘to be delighted,’ or from gános ‘brightness’ and mēdea ‘genitals.’[15]

gāo : kao : [Ch] high, revered; great-great-grand-, an indicator of the 4th degree of ascent.

gaol : [Ir] blood; blood relationship.[16]

gaol : Cf. hole.

gaol : jail : [We] prison, a place of confinement.

Gaol Delivery Roll : the register of prisoners released from jail.[17]

gaoldelivery : a judicial process by which prisoners are released from confinement, either by reason of acquittal or condemnation to death.

gāozŭ : [Ch] FaFaFaFa; great-great-grandfather.

gāozŭfù : [Ch] FaFaFaFa; great-great-grandfather.

gāozŭmŭ : [Ch] FaFaFaMo; great-great-grandmother.

garcifarizat : he stuffs boys; a poetic vulgarism for buggery.[18]

garçon : [Fr] boy.

gard : [Sw] farm.

gardening : Cf. wages for gardener.

gardianus : churchwarden.

gargoyle : gargouille : [1300 Fr] grotesque; a grotesquely carved figure of some fabulous being.  The gargoyle is a feature typical of a Gothic cathedral, where it often serves as a decorative spout to cast rainwater away from the building.  In other places, and in other forms of art, a fabulous creature used in decoration is usually called a grotesque.

garland : [1603] a typical sign for an ale house.

garrison : garison : [Fr] soldiers positioned in a fortified town or castle for defense; a fortified place housing soldiers.

garson : garçon : [Fr] boy.[19]

garter : [Gm] a ribbon or string by which a stocking is held firmly upon the leg; a decorative, blue garter with inscription that marks the highest order of English knighthood.

Garter King at Arms : the first of three senior heralds in England.

gastr- : [Gk] stomach.

gastrula : [1887] an early metazoan embryo consisting of a hollow and two-layer, cellular cup, formed of an outer epiblast and inner hypoblast.  The epiblast and hypoblast meet along the marginal line of a blastopore that opens into the archenteron.  Cf. blastula, blastocyst, morula.

Gatte : [Gm] Hu; husband.

Gattin : [Gm] Wi; wife.

Gattung : [Gm] genus, species, race.

gauche : [Fr] left, awkward.  Cf. links.

Gaufridus : Galfredus : Geoffrey.

Gaufridus : Geoffrey.

Gaul : Gallia : the ancient name for France.

gavelkind : a kind of inheritance typical of the Kentish people of southeastern England; a type of partible inheri­tance in which all sons shared their father’s property equally.  The system leads to the perpetual subdivision of properties, and it stemmed from the Franks.  Many regions of Germany practiced gavelkind, and therefore fragmented into the countless principalities, duchies, and fiefdoms that eventually had to be reunified by the Prussians in 1871.  The English accommodated this peculiar system in Kent, but never adopted it nationally, preferring instead to keep fiefs and farms impartible.  Bequests of real estate among the indigenous Irish were sometimes varieties of gavelkind.  Cf. primogeniture, ultimogeniture, unigeniture.

Gavlegb. : Gavleborg, Sweden.

gay : [1600] a loose man.

gay : [1716-1900 Fr] gaie : male homosexual; homosexual of either gender.  After two centuries of use as a code word for homosexual, the term gay gradually acquired its present meaning.  We have meager evidence of the word’s use in this sense prior to the twentieth century, but we have some curious literary references that might account for its adoption, such as John Gay’s play entitled Dione (1720).  Cf. Dione.

gay : [1900 En] female prostitution.[20]

gay : [1922] the acts of a lesbian couple.  Cf. Furr and Skeene.

gay : [1939] transvestite.  When Cary Grant appeared in Bringing Up Baby wearing a dress, he explained that he had suddenly ‘gone gay.’

gay : [Fr] cheerful, merry, airy; fine, showy, specious; an ornament, embellishment

gay : gai : [Fr, Du, Dn, Jp, Sw, Catalan] the international denotation for a lesbian, or a homosexual man.[21]  Cf. entendido [Catalan], mishchav zachur [Hb].  Cf. Furr and Skeene, Gæa, Ge.

gay gene : [1993] the marker at Xq28 in the X chromosome that seems to be an important genetic factor in determining the homosexuality of a male.  No correlative lesbian gene has ever been discovered.  Cf. sexual orientation.

gay parent : a biological father who has discovered a preference for homosexuality; coparent, the gay lover of a father; the gay correlative to a heterosexual stepfather.  The phrase may sometimes apply to lesbians in the same rôles.  Cf. coparent; lesbian parent; sexual orientation.

gay sovereigns : David of Israel, Alexander the Great, Emperor Hadrian, William II the Red, Richard I Lionheart, Edward II, James VI of Scotland or James I of England.

Gay, John : [1716] the author of a burlesque poem entitled, Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, in the reign of Queen Anne, in 1716.

gaya : [1492 Sp Castilian] a loose man.[22]

gaya : [Castilian] female prostitution.

Gayatri : [Sk] the goddess of the Morning Prayer; the metrical Gayatri verse typical of the Morning Prayer.

gayness : a social invention based upon androphilia and patrism.  Gayness is the homosexual equivalent of fatherhood, for it depends upon the systematic invention of social rôles based upon agism, sexism, and hierarchy.  In its broadest sense, gayness embraces all people nonconforming to patristic heterosexualism, including ambisexuals, lesbians, male gays, hermaphrodites, and transgenerals.  Because gayness and fatherhood are social fictions, created by imagination and myth, their natures can change and permutate in very short times.  Germany, for example, tolerated a fairly free exploration of homosexuality from the 1870s through the 1920s, but the Nazis restored the Roman Catholic death penalty for sodomy, and systematically executed perhaps 600,000 homosexuals between 1933 and 1945.  During the Stonewall Rebellion (1969), gayness implied political activism, and public agitation, and tended to provoke controversy and opposition.  The AIDS crises (1981) was initially marred by genocidal acts of omission that resulted in horrible losses of life, but the American public gradually acquired a profound acquaintance with gay and lesbian lifestyles, and finally permitted the first depiction of a closeted lesbian revealing her sexuality to her friends and family in the television show Ellen (1997).  Cf. lesbianism.

gays and lesbians : Cf. lesbians and gays.

gays in the military : [1992] a silly political struggle that ensued after the election of President Clinton in 1992.  Clinton was the first U.S. president to ever propose equal rights for gays in the military, but he was vehemently opposed by a hegemony of male homophobes in the Congress.  Plato and Aristotle held that pairs of homosexual lovers made the best soldiers,[23] and the Sacred Band of Thebes provided history with a laudable example of this premise.  Alexander the Great remains the preëminent example of a gay professional soldier.  Long before the Roman Empire, armies of Amazons controlled north Africa, the Greek Isles, and the Russian steppes, which accounts for the ancient veneration of so many lesbian warriors held to be goddesses, such as Pallas Athena.  The list of gay generals and conquerors is far too long to list here, but it includes such personalities as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Boudica, Richard I Lionheart, and Edward II, Duc d’Orléans, the Grande Condé, and Maréchal de Vendôme.  Cf. Alexander the Great, Amazon, Boudica, Pallas Athena, Sacred Band of Thebes.

gazal : ghazal.

gazarro : [It] heretic; homosexual.

gazel : ghazal.

gazeteer : a geographical dictionary providing the names, variant spellings, and descriptions of places.  Place names seldom appear in common dictionaries, unless they have given rise to some derivative adjectives or words.

GC : Gregorian Calendar.  Cf. GR, Gregorian Retrospection.

GC : Gregorian Calendar.  Cf. Julian calendar.  Opp. JC, NS, OS, Julian calendar, New Style Julian, Old Style Julian.

GC factor 400 : Cf. Gregorian Factor 400

gch. : grandchildren.

gdn. : guardian.

ge- : [Gk] earth.

Ge : Gaia : the root word meaning ‘earth’ that appears in combination as geography, geology, and geometery.

Geb: [Eg] the earth god in Egypt.

geboren : [Du, Gm] born.

GEDCOM : Gedcom : a data-table standard used for the transmission of genealogical database files.  The fields are identified by Gedcom tags, or markers, often abbreviated as bapl., endl., blsl., et cetera.

Gedoopt : [Du] baptized.

geheiratet : [Gm] married.

gehucht : [Du] hamlet.

gehuwd : [Du] married.

Geld : [Gm] money, payment; Danegeld, the tribute Saxons had paid to the Danes during the Danish occupation of England.

geld : to castrate, remove the testicles.

Geld. : Gelderland, Netherlands.

Gematria : [Hb] the numerological interpretation of scripture.

gemel : gemellus : a pair, two things of a sort; a term used in heraldry.

gemelas : [Sp] twin girls.

gemelli : twins.

gemelliparous : bearing twins.

gemellus : twin-born; both, double.

gemelos : [Sp] twin; boy twins; boy-and-girl twins.

gemination : replication, repetition, reduplication.

Gemini the Twins : ` : 22 May to 22 June; FaSo & FaSo; the Twins, Castor and Pollux; the third sign of the zodiac.  Mythology tells us that Castor and Pollux were constant companions and camarades, but that they were halfbrothers, and twin in appearance but not in fact.  Cf. winkte [Oglala].

geminous : double.

geminy : twins, a pair.

gen- : gene- : [Gk] kind, race.

gen- : gene- : gon- : [Gk] to be produced; to originate, produce.

gen- : gener- : race, kind.

gen- : genit- : to produce, give birth to.

gen. : genitive.

gen. : gent. : gentleman

gender : genus [Lt] : gendre [Fr] : birth, race, kind, sort, sex.

gender : the masculine or feminine denominations for nouns.  Grammars of Indo-European languages hold that nouns have genders, or male, female, and neuter denominations, based upon the articles to which the nouns are conjoined, or the suffixes of the nouns themselves.  Latin has three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter (-us, -a, -um), but French has two (le and la).  Modern English deliberately omits many gender distinctions, and therefore has very few gender differences.  Cf. sexism.

gender : to beget, produce, cause, copulate, breed.

gender assignment : the socialization by gender rôle of an intersexual or transsexual person.  Parents and relatives typically initiate gender assignment for an infant intersexual, but an adult transsexual might initiate gender assignment by himself or herself.  Cf. hermaphrodite, intersexual, sex assignment.

gender rôle : a masculine or feminine orientation and demeanor; the masculine or feminine character of a person’s speech and action; acting out learned behaviors that society deems to be characteristic of one’s chromosomal sex.  Margaret Meade demonstrated that different societies assign different tasks to each gender, and she concluded that gender and fatherhood must be learned behaviors.  Opp. fatherhood, sex.

gene : a unit of heredity; a segment of a chromosome or DNA molecule containing the sequential code for a specific func­tion.  One gene is a distinct sequence of nucleic acids in a chromosome, or a distinct series of DNA base pairs, that corresponds to a particular genetic characteristic or expression.  One chromosome may contain thousands of genes.  All the genetic codes in a single chromosome consist of perhaps 100 million base pairs of DNA.  Two parents will normally have two distinctive variants or alleles of the same gene, but a child may inherit only one of the two parental alleles.  Therefore, two children in the same sib can have two different alleles of the same different.  The seemingly random recombinations of maternal and paternal alleles leads to genetic diversity.  Theoretically, an individual should have a 50/50 mix of maternal and paternal genes, and should have 25% of his genes in common with his sibling.  Cf. chromosone, DNA.

gene- : gen- : [Gk] kind, race.

gene- : gen- : gon- : [Gk] to be produced; to originate, produce.

gene : sociability gene.  Cf. Turner syndrome.

gene cloning : reproducing a gene by isolating it, and inserting it into a host cell for replication.

gene mapping : determining the relative location of a specific gene within a chromosome.

gene splicing : the practice of recombining selected DNA parts of a chromosome.

gene therapy : the artificial introduction of a normal gene into a cell, in order to replace some defective gene.

geneal. : genealogy.

genealogia : [It, Sp] pedigree, genealogy.

genealogia Extraneorum : genealogy of Stranges.

genealogical : pertaining to lines of descent or families.

genealogical adjectives : adjectives a genealogist may use to characterize and qualify kin terms.  A genealogist’s principal duty is to record kin terms, and in lineal pedigrees and Ahnentafel charts the kin terms mainly consist of simple, reciprocal terms, such as father-son, cousin-cousin, et cetera.  However, in more sophisticated narratives, a genealogist should qualify such kin terms with adjectives that further characterize the relationship itself, as well as the evidentiary nature of any hypothesis or presumption.  Among other adjectives, a genealogist might use such words as:  adoptive (father or son), associative, compositive, coöperative, coöptative, coöptive, correlative, creative, depositive, designative, diminutive, disputative, fictive, inchoative (prepubescent wife or marriage), incubative, interpositive, juxtapositive, legislative, ministrative, native, nominative, nutritive, originative, presuppositive, procreative, propositive, putative, recreative, relative, reputative, semblative, separative, speculative, suppositive, translative, transpositive, verificative, vivificative.  A large host of other adjectives could be appropriate in various contexts, such as abrogative, amative, annunciative, animative, anticipative, appellative, appetitive, approbative, assimilative, coadjutive, coërcitive, cogitative, commiserative, compensative, concretive, confederative, constitutive, contaminative, contemplative, coördinative, copulative, criminative, dative, degenerative, deliberative, denominative, denunciative, depletive, depreciative, desiderative, designative, discretive, discriminative, disseminative, dominative, edulcorative (eatable, sweet), elucidative, emotive, emulative, enumerative, enunciative, estimative, exaggerative, executive, expeditive, fugitive, genitive, imbricative (concave indenture), imitative, incarnative, incognitative, incommunicative, incorporative, incrassative, indicative, initiative, innovative, insinuative, interpretative, interrogative, locomotive, motive, narrative, persecutive, premonitive, prognosticative, promotive, pronunciative, propagative, provocative, punitive, qualificative, quantitative, regenerative, repletive, resolutive, restorative, resuscitative, retributive, secretive, subordinative, suffocative, supplicative, substantive, tentative, translative (translatitious, transported), vegetative, vindicative, vituperative, vocative, votive.  Cf. -al, -ed, genealogical kinship qualification, genealogical position, -ive, -itious.

genealogical kinship qualification : the manner in which a genealogist modifies and qualifies kin terms.  In genealogical narratives, it is prudent and preferred to use descriptive and categorical adjectives formed with the suffix -ive ‘tending to,’ as in the phrases propositive ancestor, putative father, adoptive mother, presumptive heir, nutritive pater, and the like.  The suffix -ive happens to be broad enough to accommodate hypotheses, perceptions, and impressions, or even cases of contemporary and continuing relationships.  Obviously, certain fixed expressions such as ‘native son’ happen to denote a place of origin, or some other meaning exclusive of kinship, and therefore must be replaced with some alternative phrase, such as ‘natal son.’  Wherever the suffix -ive somehow fails to work, the writer should consider replacing it with the suffix -al ‘pertaining to.’  English grammar certainly permits the writer to use a past participle in place of the adjectival suffix, and therefore he might say ‘supposed son’ instead of ‘suppositive son’ or ‘presumed heir’ instead of ‘presumptive heir.’  However, it is sometimes misleading and inappropriate to uniformly transform all such verbs into past participles, because the past tense conveys a sense of completed action and verified fact.  For example, to call someone living an ‘adopted son’ could be reckless, because the past participle implies (1) legal adoption and (2) completed action in the past.  If the genealogist does not have any proof of a legal adoption, it is safer for him to say ‘adoptive son’ rather than ‘adopted son.’  If the living adoptee continues to be regarded as having an adoptive relationship with his adoptive father, it seems incorrect to say adopted.  The past participle adopted wrongly suggests to the reader that the adoption may have occurred as a one-time event in the past, and implies that the adoptive relationship might no longer exist.  Since Roman times, adoptions have been regarded as permanent and inviolable situations in Western kinship.  Adoption establishes certain prohibitions against incest which can never end, even if the adoption itself is somehow revoked or terminated by law, and therefore the past participle adopted tends to place in the past tense an adoptive relationship that actually continues in the present.  Cf. -al, -ed, genealogical adjectives, -ive.

genealogical memory : the ordinary consciousness of an individual having a shallow recollection of kindred, merely 2-3 generations; a genealogist is likely to have a deep memory of ancestry, some 10 generations; a priest or epic poet may trace ascent even to fictitious ancestors.  The recollection or recording of extremely remote generations may well be unconnected to any biological notions of descent, for it focuses upon the veneration of dead ancestors, and therefore might be equated with religion.

genealogical numbering : a numbering system devised to reckon lines of descent from a common prepositus.  A typical, modified Henry system may consist of the (1) book, (2) house, (3) generation, (4) seniority, and (5) filiation, e.g. Book IX, RAMU 10:31111,11142 filius ingenuus.  Cf. prepositus.  Opp. ego-centric kin reckoning, kin typology.

genealogical position : a specific place in a descendancy relative to the ego.  A chart showing the relatives of the ego may be divided into categories of kin known by kin terms, such as uncle and aunt.  In Anglo-American kin terminology, an uncle may be the ego’s father’s brother (FaBr), mother’s brother (MoBr), father’s sister’s husband (FaSiHu), or mother’s sister’s husband (MoSiHu), and therefore the only way to designate an individual uncle is to further specify him by his genealogical position.  Cf. kin term.

genealogical position : positon, personality.

genealogical position : the station or place a certain kinsman or kinswoman happens to occupy with respect to the ego.  The terms father and mother represent two genealogical positions vis-à-vis the ego, and Chinese kinship terminology expands the grids of kinship to include some 338 kinship terms, each of which can be called a genealogical position.  Reciprocal and incidental relationships create as many genealogical positions as the ego’s kinship terminology can accommodate.  The concept and word position is so central to kinship that genealogists are apt to use many adjectives based upon it, such as compositive, decompositive, depositive, interpositive, juxtapositive, predispositive, presuppositive, propositive, repositive, recompositive, suppositive, and transpositive.

genealogical reckoning : stepwise reckoning.  Opp. categorical statements.

genealogist : someone who traces lines of descent.  The term genealogist is sometimes used in contradistinction to a family historian who traces lines of ascent.

genealogy : [Gk] a decensus of male ancestors; the history of a succession of families using the same or variant surnames.  Genealogy chiefly denotes the tracing of lineal descents among males, and it expresses many details important to history and biography, for it was mainly through heirs male that rights of inheritance and succession devolved in European civilizations.  This discipline often conjoins and compliments the study of family history, or the tracing of ascending, maternal lines.  The fundamental principles of genealogy are extraordinarily simple, and easy to understand, and therefore it is popular as a passtime, hobby, or indulgence.  Extensive genealogies involve migrations and passages through historical time, so the craft tends to increase in complexity and difficulty, due to the wide variations in languages, laws, and geopolitical histories that the advanced genealogist is likely to encounter.  Truly enthusiastic and experienced genealogists tend to call the engagement an art or science.  Cf. Ahnentafel, family history, pedigree.

genealogy : kin reckoning by consanguineal and affinal links.  Opp. category.

genealogy versus category : reference versus address; the specification of genealogical position, as opposed to classifying relatives by category.  Genealogy is kin reckoning, or kin reference, wherein the focus is upon consanguineal and affinal links, rather than kin types.  A categorical statement is a single semantic unit represented by a single kinship term used to denote individuals related to the ego.  Cf. terminology of address, terminology of reference.

gener : ChDaHu, SoDaHu, DaDaHu; grandson-in-law, granddaughter’s husband.

gener : DaHu; son-in-law; a prospective or future son-in-law.  This noun derived from old verb geno, so it relates to the more recent, variant verb gigno, and is a cognate with geneo and genus.  In medieval times, people were generally confused and uncertain as to how they should properly name different in-laws, and therefore documents show several variations and conventions.  The most typical practice was to style in-laws in the same fashion one would style a blood relative, by using the familiar kinship terms of brother, sister, mother, et cetera.  When grantors or scribes tried to name in-laws differently, they often made mistakes, applying some rare words in places they did not belong, and using terms that were inconsistent with the terms used by other authors.  Gener was a convenient catch-all word, the meaning of which resembles our present ‘generator,’ so Roman and medieval writers used it for several in-law relationships without distinction.  Cf. frater, genitor, gloris, socer.

gener- : gen- : race, kind.

gener : WiBr; brother-in-law.

General Register of Births : [1743-1837] a voluntary register for birth records established to accommodate Nonconformists and the Dissenters.  Although it was intended to consolidate all non-Anglican birth records in the country, it was mostly used by dissenters living in London.  This separate register became obsolete with the institution of civil registration in 1837.

generation : a phase in chronology that generally denotes a range of people who are approximately the same age.  Genealogists commonly use generation to signify a single horizontal level in a descent group, but anthropologists tend to call the horizontal grouping a generational level, or level of reference.  Cf. generational level.

generation : a time period of about 19 years, representing a single degree of lineal descent; all of the brothers, sisters, and cousins in the same rank or degree of direct descent from a common ancestor.  The Romans believed that 100 years was the theoretical upper limit of a human life, but it has always been unreasonable to use a century for the length of a generation, because lifetimes vary so greatly, and because generations overlap one another.  Given all the perils and disastrous incidents of ancient and medieval life, we presume that 40 years might have been an average or typical lifetime in ages past.  Furthermore, we know that medical advancements and improvements in safety standards in the twentieth century have rapidly extended the average lifespan to something between 70 and 90 years in most developed countries.  However, the genealogist need not concern himself with the average age of a single generation.  What the genealogist needs to estimate is the average span from birth to birth in two generations.  Some have simply divided the century into 3 parts, and have adopted 33 years as an average for generational succession, but even this seems to be too liberal a measure.  Thomas Jefferson claimed to have used a set of parish records to tabulate and calculate the average period of a generation, and he arrived at 19 years.  An independent examination of English parish records over several centuries, roughly 1500 to 1800, yielded the same approximation.  Thus, we may conclude that one century should occasion the rise of approximately 4 generations, or even 5, and not merely 3 generations.  Whenever statistics or actual dates happen to be available, the genealogist might find it beneficial to examine or calculate the average age of first marriages.  Men tend to marry slightly later than women, but both sexes base their decisions to wed mainly upon economic circumstances.  Throughout the twentieth century in America, the average age for first marriages has ranged from approximately 21 years to 27 years, so a genealogist may reasonable conclude that the average generational span should roughly match this period.  For ordinary purposes of estimation, 19 years is appropriate for one generation, providing 2-year adjustments for the births of siblings of different ages.

generation : ramage; the lateral or horizontal organization of living siblings and relatives.  This is a matristic kinship dimension that arises naturally, through a mother’s identification of dependants by sibship.  Cf. kinship dimensions.  Opp. lineage.

Generation Book: Chia Pu [Ch].  Cf. Chia Pu, family association.

generation moieties : Cf. four-section system.

generation name : Cf. pai-ming.

generation W : [1945-1964] the baby-boom generation that immediately followed World War II (1931-1945).  The phrase is a back-formation, based upon the popular colloquialism ‘generation X.’

generation X : [1965-1984] the space-age generation, born during the United States War in Vietnam (1965-1973), or later, during the Watergate era (1974-1976), Cartesian peace (1977-1980), and the early years of the Reganean escalation of the Star Wars arms race (1981-1988).

generation Y : [1985-2004] the millennial generation, born during the belligerence of Regan and Bush (1985-1991) and the prosperity of Clinton (1992-1997).

generational level : level of reference, a category of kindred who belong to the same genealogical stratum with respect to a common ancestor.  The ego’s level is numbered zero (0), and is therefore called the zero generational level.  The ego’s parents are numbered +1, and his grandparents are numbered +2.  The ego’s children are numbered -1, and his grandchildren are numbered -2.  French anthropologists often reverse this numbering, such that senior generations are labeled with negative signs (-), and junior generations are labeled with positive signs (+).[24]

generational terminology : terms of a Hawaiian system; formerly called classificatory terminology, representing the kinship systems of Oceania, Melanesia, or Hawaii; a system that equates all cousins with siblings.

generational terminology : the kinship terms of a people who make no distinction between lineal and collateral relatives, such as the Hawaiian type of kinship, and the systems of Oceania and Melanesia.  Previously named the classificatory system, the generational terminology of Hawaiians ignores the differences between father and uncle, or brother and cousin.[25]  Cf. bifurcate collateral terminology, bifurcate merging terminology, lineal terminology, tama.  Opp. descriptive terminology.

genero : to beget, bring to life.

generosus : noble, of noble birth, well bred; productive; magnanimous.

genes : a human carries some 80,000 genes encoded within each nucleus of each cell.

genesiology : [1882] the science of generation.

genesis : [Gk] generation; Genesis, the first book of Moses, which describes the creation of the world.  Cf. parthenogenesis, spiritogenesis.

geneth : [We] girl.

genethliacal : [Gk] pertaining to nativities as calculated by astronomers.

genethliacs : astrology; the science of calculating nativities; the prediction of the future events of life from the starts that were predominant at one’s birth.

genethliatic : astrologer, someone who calculates nativities.

genetic and familial disorders : approximately 3,250 to 4,000 disorders known to be genetic and hereditary, namely alcoholism, allergies, arthritis, asthma, blood diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, congenital abnormalities, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, Down’s syndrome, dwarfism, epilepsy, hearing disorder, Huntington’s disease, hypertension, liver disease, mental illness, mental retardation, migraine headaches, miscarriages, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, myasthenia gravis, obesity, respiratory disease, Rh disease, skin disorder, sudden infant death (SIDS), suicide, systemic lupus erythematosus, Tay-Sachs disease, thyroid disorder, and visual disorder.[26]

genetic code : the specific sequences of genes in the chromosomes that define the traits and characteristics of an individual.

genetic descent : the consanguineal and ambilineal linkage of genomes within a span of four degrees of ascending or descending relationships.  Genetic diversity and randomness becomes so acute by the time a line of descent reaches the 4th degree, that its significance tends to fade away, and makes it impossible to have both proportionality and similitude between the ego and each of his second-great-grandparents.  Cf. limits of genetic relationship.  Opp. social descent.

genetic disorders : common genetic disorders, including obesity, high blood pressure, breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, uterine and ovarian cancer, skin cancer or melanoma, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, otosclerosis, and hearing loss.

genetic disorders : rare genetic disorders, including malignant hyperthermia (MH), retinoblastoma, Joseph disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Gaucher’s disease, chorea or Huntington’s Disease, Hurler’s Syndrome, porphyria, hemophilia, Marfan’s Syndrome, hereditary ataxia, abetalipoproteinemia, asthma, phenylketonuria, and galactosemia.

genetic disorders : testable genetic disorders, including adult polycystic kidney disease, AAT deficiency or emphysema; fragile X syndrome, sickle-cell anemia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, hemophilia, phenylketonuria, and retinoblastoma.

genetic disorders : untestable genetic disorders, including hypertension, dyslexia, hardening of the arteries, cancer, manic depression, schizophrenia, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, myotonic muscular dystrophy.

genetic engineering : the science of altering and recombining genes to eliminate defects or to produce desired traits.

genetic inheritance : one of four types of genetic inheritance, namely autosomal dominant inheritance, recessive inheritance, X-linked inheritance, and multifactorial inheritance, which collectively account for some 3,000 heritable conditions.[27]

genetic marker : some detectable genetic feature or sequence that stands as a marker for the presence or potential for some diseases.  The ABO blood types serve as genetic markers.

genetic parent : parent genetic.

genetics : the science of heredity, divided into branches called medical genetics and molecular genetics.

genetrix : [anthropology] the natal or biological mother, as opposed to the mater or the social defined mother.  Cf. genitor.  Opp. mater.

genetrix : Mo; genitrix, mother.

genial : genialis : natural, native; that which contributes to propagation.

genit- : gen- : to produce, give birth to.

genita : daughter.

genital kissing or tonguing : Cf. leíkhein, likhmázein.

genital orientation : the bodily position of the female genitalia, namely the vulva and clitoris.  Human and bonobo genitals have a frontal orientation which physically permits and encourages face-to-face copulation.  Other primates, namely the chimpanzee, gibbon, gorilla, and orangutan all have genitals with dorsal orientations, preventing them from having frontal intercourse.

genitales partes : genital parts.

genitalia : the sexual organs made female or male by the chromosomes, or sometimes by the surgical assignment of a birth sex.

genitalia female: labia, mons veneris, pudenda.

genitalis : of Diana, as she who presides over births; creative, fruitful; pertaining to birth or generation.

genitalium virga descendens : the descending rod of the genital parts.

genitals : genitalia : private parts, organs of the reproductive system, especially the external parts that provide stimulation during copulation.  In colloquial speech, we tend to use genitals to denote both female and male private parts.  Anthropologists tend to restrict the meaning to the female genitals only, preferring to refer to males with parts even more specific, such as the penis and scrotum.  Cf. penis, scrotum, clitoris, vulva.

genito-genital rubbing : GG rubbing : a sexual practice between adult female bonobos wherein one partner clings to the other with her arms and legs, while the other lifts her from the ground.  A pair of female bonobos so entwined will rub their tumescent swellings together until they exhibit signs of orgasm.  This type of apish lesbianism has been documented only among bonobos, and not among any of the other primates.

genitor : [anthropology] Fa; the natal or biological father, as opposed to the pater or the socially defined father.  Cf. genetrix.  Opp. pater.

genitor : [poetic] Fa; father, sire, begettor.  Opp. pater.

genitor deum : godly father, Jupiter.

genitrix : genetrix : Mo; mother.  Opp. mater.

genitura : begetting, engendering; Genitura, the constellation that presides over a birth.

geniture: generation, birth.

genitus : So; son.

genius : genitale.

geno : gigno, to beget, bear, bring forth.  This original verb geno was the predecessor of gigno, and accounts for some irregular conjugations of gigno, such as genuit.  Cf. gener, genus, genuit.

genogram : a drawing of a family tree that records genetic or medical data about family members and their relation­ships over at least three generations, so as to show recessive traits and propensities.  Cf. diagram, pedigree.

genography : a description a kinship that emphasizes both lineality and collaterality, or patrilineal descent, and the matrist organization of contemporaries.  A genographic presentation usually consists of an ascending or descending pedigree, a kinship diagram, a medical genogram, or an Ahnentafel of direct ancestors.  Cf. agism, primary kin terms, sexism.  Opp. xenography.

genome : the total genetic endowment of an individual that is represented as a complete set of 46 chromosomes within a single human cell.

Genome Project : [1980s] a coöperative scientific effort to discern and correctly identify the genes that correspond to specific functions and characteristics.  It was estimated in 1996 that the participants in this project had succeeded in mapping perhaps 18% of the human genetic code.

genotype : [1897] genetic makeup, all or part of the genetic constitution of an individual or group; the genetic blueprint of an organism.  Cf. phenotype.

gens : [Am] patrilineal descent group.  Cf. sib.  Opp. clan.

gens : [singular] people, nation, race.  An exogamous and large Roman kin­ship whose members claimed descent from a fairly remote common ancestor.  The gens customarily appeared as the second or middle name, followed by the more specific surname or cognomen.  Furthermore, the gens was used in its feminine form as a public name common to the daughters in one’s family, such that two daughters of a man belonging to gens Julius were likely to be called Julia prima and Julia secunda, when they were introduced in public.  This naming custom was probably devised as a polite means for partly hiding the true identities of young and vunerable girls when showing them to strangers.  Cf. cognomen, nomen, natio, patricii maiorum gentium, patricii minorum gentium.

gens Julius : Cf. House of Julus.

gens maiores : major family.

gens minores : minor family.

gent. : gentleman.

gentes : [Am] plural of gens; patrilineal descent groups.  Cf. sib.

gentes : foreigners.

genticus : belonging to a nation, national.

gentile : gentilis : native of an uncovenanted nation; someone belonging to any nation other than the ten tribes of Israel, e.g. British, German.

gentiles : male agnatic kindred, the men of one’s gens.  Gentiles form a larger circle than one’s smaller circle of agnati and cognati.

gentilicius : belonging to a particular nation.

gentilis : of the same clan or race.

gentilitas : the relationship between the members of a gens.  Cf. gentility.

gentilitious name : surname, especially an old surname representing a large gens rather than the particular cognomen of some specifc branch.

gentility : dignity of birth, elegance of behavior, gracefulness of mien; gentry, the class of persons well born; good extraction.

gentis : of the same gens.

gentle : gentilis [1066 Lt] : gentil [Norman Fr] : belonging to any class higher than the ignoble.

gentlefolk : gentlepersons distinguished by their births from vulgar persons.

gentleman : [1500] armiger, bearer of a coat of arms.  The greater nobles maintained their own heralds, and these independent heralds sometimes inclined to make the bearer into a gentleman.  The Crown never authorized bestowal of the title gentleman prior to Tudor times,[28] but we have records reporting that certain grants of arms dating from the reign of Henry VIII (regnavit 1509-1547) included ennobling clauses granting the title.[29]

gentleman : [1547] a non-armigerous person styled Gentleman, by reason of (1) his military rank, (2) the office his father held, or (3) his influential relations.  Records of the High Court of Chivalry provide us clear evidence that such people were sometimes styled Gentleman, even when they bore no coat of arms.[30]

gentleman : [1586] In the year 1586, Fearn classified several persons as deserving the title of Gentleman, namely (1) a student of common law, (2) a groom of the Sovereign’s Palace, (3) a churl’s son made into a priest or canon, (4) a man reared in the service of a Baron or Bishop, and (5) a governor of a city.[31]

gentleman : [1601] a man newly granted a coat-of-arms.  In Kent and Lancashire, the class of gentlemen comprised less than 2% of the population at the beginning of the seventeenth century.[32]

gentleman : [1603] a commissioned officer beneath the rank of Esquire.[33]

gentleman : [1672 antea Sc] an armigerous man permitted to display only a shield, but no supporters or adornments of any kind.  The Scots lifted this restriction in 1672.[34]

gentleman : gentilhomme : [1086 Fr] a man of status higher than vulgar.  The word gentleman did not originally denote any specific class, so it could be used with respect to anyone ranked between the ignoble and earls.  The term gentleman once included free tenants or franklins, esquires, and barons.

gentleman : gentilhomme : [1413 Fr] a man belonging to a social class of persons not ignoble and not noble.  Statute I, Hen V, cap 5, was an Act of Parliament that required that all Writs of Action, Indictments, and personal appeals to explain the nature of the defendant’s outlawry, estate, degree, or mystery.  Sir George Sitwell proposed that Statute I must have been responsible for transforming the term gentleman into a definite class.[35]

gentleman : gentilhomme : [1431 Fr] a class of landowner ranked higher than a yeoman, but lower than a knight or esquire.  This definitive use of gentleman was published in Feudal Aids (1431).[36]

gentleman : gentilhomme : gent. : [Fr] a freeholder who ranks higher than a yeoman but below an esquire; a man of birth, a man of extraction; someone whose character or position distinguishes him as better than vulgar.  A gentleman is a prominent commoner and might belong to the indigenous gentry or the landed gentry, but he is not noble, because he holds no noble title.

gentleman servingman : a man of good breeding employed as the head of some department in the great household of a noble. The younger son of an armigerous family would normally fill such a post, and he would often have one or more yeomen to assist him.

gentleman, yeoman, and husbandman : [1603] the social ranks of the men in one family, as determined by seniority.  When these three titles became fashionable, landowning families often classified their own members with the titles, by order of succession.

gentleman’s helmet : [1700] a helmet depicted with its visor closed, in profile to the dexter.  It was once mandatory to depict a gentleman’s helmet in profile to the dexter, but that rule has been relaxed in recent centuries, especially if the design needs to be changed to accommodate the proper crest.[37]

gentleship : the deportment or carriage of a gentleman.

gentlewoman : a woman of birth above the vulgar; a woman of distinguished descent.

gentry : [En] the nobles, baronets, knights, gentlemen, yeomanry, and husbandry of a country; those persons in society who are not vulgar and ignoble.  Gentle families of Anglo-American descent tend to organize themselves by the rules of patrilineage and primogeniture, and therefore succession and inheritance tend to follow the heirs general of a patriliny, and are sometimes restricted to heirs male.  James I recognized a Peerage of five degrees (dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, barons), supplemented with a Baronetage (baronets) of one, medial degree, and followed in precedence by knights, esquires, gentlemen, yeomen, and husbandmen.  The Crown itself authorized and patented the appointment of its Peerage of nobles assembled for Parliament, and its independent Baronage of feudal nobles outside the Parliament.  Cf. landed gentry.

gentry : gentlefolk, gentlepersons; people of good breeding; the social class above yeomanry but below nobility.

genuflection : the act of bending one’s knee; adoration expressed through bending one’s knee.  This act of humility and homage is usually performed in a chapel or church, before the altar, or in the presence of a lord.

genuit : he begat, produced; the third person perfect of gigno.  Cf. habuit liberos.

genuit alios filios, Gulielmum et Gibertum : he had other sons, William and Gilbert.[38]

genuit ex ea filias ... : he begat by her the daugh­ters ...

genuit ex Eva sponsa sua : he begat by his spouse Eva.[39]

genuit ex hac Philippa : he begat by said Philippa.

genuit ex Isabella uxore sua : he begat by Isabella his wife.[40]

genuit filium nomine Alanum : he begat one son named Alan.

genuit quatuor filios, videlicet : he begat four sons, namely …[41]

genuitque ex ea Robertum qui ante patrem obiit : and begat by her Robert who died before his fa­ther.[42]  Cf. obiit.

genus : a sixth class of living beings, among at least seven orders of classification; a class more specific than family, but less specific than species.  Cf. classification, taxonomy.

genus : birth, descent, origin; offspring, descendant; descendants; race, stock, family, house; sex, gender.  Cf. filius, species.

genus et virtus : of high birth.

genus Extraneus : genus Extraneorum : the family Strange.

genus hominum : mankind.

genus humanum : humankind.

genus Margaretæ comitis Richomontaniæ : born of Margaret, Countess of Richmond,[43] or Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), suo jure Countess of Richmond and Derby.[44]  Cf. filius.

genus muliebre : female sex.

genus mulierum : womankind.

genus virile : male sex.

geo- : [Gk] earth, terra, orbis.

Geoffrey : Galfredus : Gaufridus.

Geoffrey : Galfredus, Galfridus, Gaufridus, Goisfridus, Gosfridus.

geographiæ domorum Extraneorum : geographies of Strange houses.  Cf. chorography.

geological time : a long and cosmic measure of time, from creation to the year 10,000 bc.  The longest unit of geological time is the aeon, and an aeon is divisible into eras, periods, and epochs.

Georgius : George.

ger- : geront- : [Gk] old age, old people.

ger- : gest- : to carry, produce.

Ger. : German, Germany.

Gerardus : Gerard.

gerfalcon : geirfalk : [Gm] a bird of prey smaller than a vulture but larger than a hawk.

german : germanus : related, germane; brother.  In combination, -german means someone approaching a brother or sister in kinship of the whole blood, or a parallel cousin.  Cf. cousin-german, parallel cousin.

germana : Si; soror germana, full sister.

germani : brothers.

germanitas : brotherhood, sisterhood.

germanus : Br; frater germanus, full brother; a brother of the whole blood, having the same two parents; genuine sibling; germane, genuine, full, true.  Opp. half brother.

geront- : ger- : [Gk] old age, old people.

geronto- : [Gk] old age, senectus.

gerontocracy : rule by the elderly. Cf. agism, aristocracy, kinship and order, sybilocracy.  Opp. sexocracy.

gerontophile : a lover of middle-aged men or old men.  Cf. -phile.

gerontophilia : the sexual preference for older men.  Opp. ephebophilia.

gersuma : fee.[45]

Gertrude and Alice : An & He; Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

geslachtsboom : [Dn] pedigree.

gesso : [It] plaster used to make decorative mouldings; plaster used as a base for a painted wall mural.

gest- : ger- : to carry, produce.

gestation : gestatio : [1615] pregnancy, the act of bearing the young in the womb; the carrying of young in the uterus.  The normal term of a pregnancy is said to be 9 months, or 36 weeks.  However, a mother bearing quintuplets once gave birth in week 33, and a mother bearing twins once gave birth in week 40, so the variance would seem to be plus or minus 4 weeks, or 1 month (+/-1 month).  Premature births can occur as early as 7 months, or 28 weeks, but such births fall outside the definition of a normal pregnancy.  Spontaneous and induced abortions sometimes terminate gestation.  Cf. gestation.

gestorben : [Gm] died.

gestorven : [Du] died.

gestorven zonder nageslacht : [Du] died without issue.

getauft : [Gm] baptized.

gf. : grandfather.

GG the letter : Ng; one of the 13 letters of the original Pelasgian alphabet.  The letter Ng was abandoned by the Cadmeans, but replaced by other means of transcription, the most common of which was the medial -gg- of Classical Greek.[46]

gg. : great-grand-.

ghazal : gazal : gazel : [Ar] an erotic lyric extoling boy-love, typical of Persian literature.  The term was popularized by German poets of the eighteenth and nineteen centuries.[47]

ghazels of Hafiz : [Ar] the Arabic lyrical poetry that extols the love of boys.  Translators have deliberately changed the pronouns to show heterosexual relations, rather than homosexual.[48]

ghost marriage : a type of levirate marriage wherein the children of a woman and her second husband are regarded as the offspring of the woman’s first husband, or the deceased brother of the second husband.  If the children of the second marriage are regarded as the children of the second husband, then the situation may be described as widow inheritance.[49]  Cf. widow inheritance.

ghost town : a town abandoned, usually for economic reasons.  The western U.S. has dozens of ghost towns, most of which were unsuccessful mining communities.

giant : geant : [Fr] a man larger in size than an ordinary man; a man unnaturally large.

gibbet : a type of gallows, built with a single pole and cantilever, in the shape of an L overturned.  Failure to drop a victim, so as to break his neck instantly, would result in a slow and agonizing death by gradual strangulation.  Some victims thrashed about as they dangled, some survived for a quarter hour or more before dying.  Necks often have powerful muscles, making it fairly difficult and time-consuming to dispatch a man by slow hanging.  The Romans built gibbets in public execution yards, and often delighted in letting criminals hang there for prolonged periods, thereby exhibiting their cruel fates to all passersby.  Cf. double-gibbet, gallows, suspendatur per collum.

Gibbet Island : [Am] an old English name for Ellis Island, NY.

gift : [Dn, Nw, Sw] married.

gifte : [Dn] married.

gigno : to beget, bear, bring forth; to cause.  The original form was geno, which accounts for certain irregularities in its conjugation, such as genuit.  Cf. geneo, gener, genuit.

Gilbert : Gilebertus : Gislebertus.

Gilebertus : Gislebertus : Gilbert.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu : [Mesopotamia] Er & Ph; the patriarchal male human hero and his lover Enkidu, the male wild god.  Gilgamesh embraced Enkidu ‘like a wife’ and loved Enkidu as he loved himself.  When the pair met Ishtar or Inanna, goddess of the moon, they together scorned the sexual advances of Ishtar, and for this Ishtar killed Enkidu, and sent him to the underworld.  During his wake for Enkidu, Gilgamesh spoke with Enkidu’s spirit, who referred to ‘my body that gave your heart joy to touch.’[50]  Cf. Inanna, Ishtar.

gilliflower : one of a class of botanical and animal tributes typically stipulated in a medieval charters as tokens of nominal or free rent.  The gilliflower example was written as ‘rent of a clove of gilliflower.’[51]  Grantors asked for various items, such as a single rose, a pair of birds, et cetera, to be presented to the grantor or his heirs annually, usually on a feast day.

gin : gin rummy, rummy.  Cf. card games.

ginger : gynger : [1519/10/16-22] a spice.  A quantity of 3 ounces of ginger was valued at 4d in 1519.[52]

Gynger : [1519] ginger.

giorno : [It] day.

giovane : giovine : [It] young.

giovanetto : [It] boy.

girding of the sword : [1615 antea] the ceremonial strapping of a sword and its sheath upon the person being elevated to the dignity of a duke, marquess, or earl.  The girding on of a sword was a central feature of each creation, because it symbolized the lord’s assumption of temporal power over his dukedom, marquessate, or earldom.  Such ceremonies were generally abandoned by 1615, after which time the lordships were created by Patents under the Great Seal.  Cf. patents under the Great Seal.

girl : caileag [Sc]; cailin [Sc]; nìgheaonag [Sc]; merch [We], geneth [We].  Cf. daughter, ferch, nic.

girl : karlinna : [Ic] a female child, a young woman.  Chaucer used the word girl for a young male page, not a young female.

girl : merch [We].

girlhood : the state of a girl.

Gislebertus : Gilbert.

gist : other income; donations of food and drink; victuals brought to a manor house for consumption; a contribution ‘of gist’ is some food, bev­erage, or commodity given to the household as payment of rent or some obligation to the es­tate.  Cf. income, store.

Giton and Encolpius : Ph & Er; the characters in Petronius Arbitor’s Satyricon.

giv. : giving, given.

given name : Cf. shih-ming.

Gk : Greek.