To "gee" someone up

Posted by Masakim on January 31, 2002

In Reply to: To "gee" someone up posted by R. Berg on January 31, 2002

: : As in John looks like he could use a little geeing up. or Why don't we go gee him up? Meaning to encourage and lift someone's spirits.

: : I have seen and heard this used in the UK but not in the US. It's not in my American dictionary. I'd like to know the origin of the phrase and particuarly the word itself.

: Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English gives three definitions for "gee," and the third one seems to fit, partly. "To encourage, incite; delude . . . Anon., 'Dartmoor from Within,' 1932. Perhaps [from] 'gee up!'"
: "Gee up" is a command to a horse: move forward, or move faster.
: : Curiously,

: : Camel

gee up v. [late 19C+] 1 to encourage. 2 to provoke trouble deliberately, to tease maliciously; thus _geed up_, furious, very angry. [SE _gee up_, to urge a horse forward]
From Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green.

It is also used in Australia.

gee phrase gee up, to incite; urge: "he was geeing up the crowd"; "all geed up and raring to go."
gee up noun 1. a lift (as of spirits, enthusiasm, etc.): "The big crowd gave the players a gee up." --verb 2. to excite or stir up.
From _The Macquarie Book of Slang_

The "horse" meaning is explained in _Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English_, Vol. 1 :

gee up ... an order traditionally used (or thought by others to be used) by a person to a horse = move faster!, start moving! 'Gee up there Neddy,' shouted the little boy, and Tom obediently set off at a smart trot with the child clinging to his neck.