100 Things I Want to Tell My Children and Grandchildren, #31

Where “Gals” came from.

For some reason, I woke up this morning (1) excited at the prospect of having time to write on my blog, and (2) inexplicably wondering where the term “gals” came from.

Admittedly, I’ve not been very dedicated to my blog the past year, and not that you would necessarily notice, but if you’ve wondered, it’s because I have been redirecting my “recreation” time to spending time with grandkids and/or working more so I’ll have money to spend on my grandkids (I rationalize it as “buying experiences and opportunities” for grandkids). 

With regard to “gals,” I’m not sure where my curiosity about that word came from, other than my preternatural curiosity about all things, but whatever the motivation, I had no idea what I was getting into when I struck off on my research into the term gals. 

First, as we all know, in the era of high-speed access to the bottomless internet, research is never done. I could have spent the balance of the week in the gals research maze. But at some point, you just must stop and go with what you have so far – and so far, I’ve discovered there is a never-ending list of synonyms for gals, many of which I’ve never heard of and are mind-blowing! I also discovered there are both positive and negative connotations.

Gals is considered derogatory as relates to slavery. Apparently, some slave-owners referred to women slaves as gals. I never knew this and feel regretful that I may have offended someone with the use of gals. On the other hand, we are all residuals of our zeitgeist, and in the world I grew up in, a gal was an endearing term. So, what to do. Well, I just hope that anyone offended by my use of gals will forgive me and understand I use it in reference to women I particularly respect. 

On the fun end, take a look at all these words I found related to gals – some of which are very offensive, a few of which I had to research further, and one of which I am particularly enamored, “bluestocking” - an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (pictured above), who was a salonnière. And how wonderful is the word salonnière?  How many gals-related words below are new to you?

adventuress, amazon, amie, arm candy, aviatrix, babe, bad kitty, bag, baggage, baroness, belle, bellibone, belladonna, besom, biddy, bimbo, bint, bird, bit, bitch, box, bridezilla, broad, butterfly, charlie, chica, chick, chiquita, chicadee, chook, colleen, collegiette, coquette, contessa, countess, dame, damsel, daughter, demimondaine, demoiselle, dyke, dish, doll, dowager, doxy, doyenne, duchess, duck, dudette, duenna, editrix, editress, empress, female, femme, femme-fatal, fille, filly, flipper, floozy, fox, frail, frau, gentlewoman, girl, girlfriend, girlie, godiva, grandmother, gurl, hag, harridan, hoe, hoochie, homegirl, honey, hussy, ice queen, ingénue, jane, judy, lady, lass, lassie, lesbian, little woman, love, ma’am, madam, maid, maiden, mama, marchioness, mare, matriarch, matron, mavourneen, member of the fair sex, member of the gentle sex, mädchen, milady, miss, missus, mistress, moll, mother, nina, noblewoman, Mrs. , Ms. , mujer, old bag, old lady, old woman, peeress, pet, petticoat, piece, poontang, popsy, princess, pussy, queen, queen bee, regina, rib, sausage jockey, schoolgirl, she, sheila, sister, skank, skirt, slattern, sleeze, sororiwhore, squaw, sultana, sweet thing, sylph, tail, tart, termagant, tootsie, tramp, vamp, victress, virago, viscountess, vituperator, wahine, wench, whore, wifie, woman, yenta, and yorga