Gut instinct

Posted by ESC on August 27, 2009 at 13:17

In Reply to: Gut instinct posted by ESC on August 27, 2009 at 12:45:

: : : What is the origin of the phrase "Go with your gut instinct"?

: : Exactly what it sounds like. Everybody knows that when you have qualms about something, they manifest themselves as an odd sickly feeling in the gut. (In fact that's what the word "qualm" originally meant.) (VSD)

: Someone has written a book about gut instinct: "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin De Becker. If something creeps you out or gives you a bad feeling, it is your primitive brain trying to save your a**. Don't analyze, run. Gutte as in intestines probably dates before 1300. Figurative use for energy, courage, pluck, first recorded in 1893. Gut issue and gut reaction, first recorded 1963. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology by Robert K. Barnhart (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995).Page 336. Haven't found "gut instinct" yet.

Mr. Safire has a long entry about "gut issue" as a political term: ".a topic that engenders a visceral reaction." Safire's New Political Dictionary by William Safire (Random House, New York, 1993). Page 309-310. Another reference dates "gut" as an adjective to 1964: "Of an issue, question, etc.: basic, fundamental.also, of a reaction: instinctive and emotional rather than rational.:" 1964, Economist, ".neo-Kennedyism combined with a concentration on gut issues." 20th Century Words: The Story of New Words in English Over the Last 100 Years by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999). Page 411.