Word Play: A famous Guy

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, August 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for WORLD’s word guy, George Grant with Word Play.

GEORGE GRANT: The word guy has passed into common English usage as an all-purpose term for a man—except its plural, guys, which can refer to a group of people, regardless of sex. But of course, guy did not start off as a generic masculine noun. It was a name.

Think of Guy Clark, the king of the Texas troubadours, or Guy Burgess, the Soviet double agent and member of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring. Or think of Guy Lombardo, the renowned big band musician or Guy de Maupassant, the 19th century essayist. Then there are Guy Ritchie and Guy Fieri, contemporary pop culture icons, the former a Hollywood director, the latter a flamboyant TV chef. Saint Guy was a 4th century Christian martyred during the Great Persecution of Diocletian. Guy of Lusignan was the 12th century crusader and King of Jerusalem. Guy of Dampierre was the 13th century Count of Flanders.

Perhaps the most famous Guy in the annals of history was Guy Fawks. He was a provincial English provocateur who in 1605 schemed to assassinate the protestant King James I and to then restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. His plan was to ignite more than a dozen barrels of gunpowder that he and a group of co-conspirators had stockpiled in an undercroft beneath the House of Lords. But the cache of explosives was discovered, Fawkes was captured, and his audacious Gunpowder Plot was foiled.

Ever since, the anniversary of his arrest is commemorated throughout Great Britain as a festival of thanksgiving. Church bells are rung. Bonfires are built. Fireworks are lit. And rag-stuffed effigies of Fawkes, known as “the Guy,” are burnt. Eventually, guy came to be used as a pejorative slang term for any disreputable person—but by the end of the 19th century, guy had lost all its negative connotations.

Now, we have guys and dolls. There are good guys, bad guys, and fall guys. There are big guys, little guys, cable guys, shy guys, and go-to guys. There is the next guy and Mr. Nice Guy. At the Olympics this year, there is even a “pommel horse guy.” There are also guy wires and guy lines—though the origins of these words are unrelated to Fawkes according to etymological wise guys.

More than four centuries after Guy Fawkes made a name for himself, the word he inspired is a part of our everyday nomenclature—and has become a name for just about all of us. I don’t know about you guys, but that absolutely fascinates this guy.

I’m George Grant.

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