Ginned up

Posted by ESC on February 25, 2005

GINNED UP - "Carl Forti, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, called the phone campaign 'scare tactics.' 'The only point in doing this is to generate phone calls to get the seniors ginned up, and (Bush's plan) isn't going to affect seniors,' he said." From a newspaper article,"Phone effort targets Republicans on Social Security: Anonymous calls termed outlandish" by James R. Carroll, The Courier Journal, Louisville, Ky., Feb. 21, 2005. "Gin" or "jin" -- "rapid circular motion" probably relating to the cotton gin. To gin up - to stir up, get something going. From "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume II, D-H, by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall (1991, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Dictionary.com had another meaning for "gin" - a snare or trap for game - and "ginned" - trapped in a gin.