gully

gully¹ channel, ravine

Etymology

The channel is probably borrowed from French goulet (“neck of a bottle, outlet, narrow passage of water”),^[2][3][4][5] or an alteration of gullet, whose Middle English form golet also meant a water channel.^{[2][6][7][8][9]} Dictionary.com takes it as a variant of gullet with -y replacing the French suffix -et.^[10] The French word is a diminutive of Old French gole (“throat”), from Latin gula (“throat”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The gullet: 1538, in Elyot's Dictionary, a sense that is recorded only until 1552.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "throat" gave way to that of a channel or ravine worn in the ground by running water, especially on a hillside: the OED's first record is from 1637, in the records of the Rhode Island colony,^[2][11] while Barnhart dates it to 1657 and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[6][7] An artificial watercourse, a deep gutter, drain or sink, is recorded from 1768, in Gilbert White;^[2] Merriam-Webster labels this sense dialectal in England.^[11] In Australia and New Zealand the word took on a wider meaning (1840),^[2] which Collins gives for New Zealand as a small valley covered in bush.^[12] In cricket gully has been the fielding position between point and the slips since 1920.^[2] The verb, to wear channels into land, appeared in American English in 1775,^[2][6] although Merriam-Webster dates it to 1754.^[11] In Scotland and many English counties the word meant a narrow ravine or brook, a ditch, a gutter, or a narrow passage between houses.^[13] The American gully-washer, a heavy rainstorm, is attested from 1887.^[7] In slang, originally American, gully as an adjective has meant basic or vulgar since 1965, a figurative use of the word for a gutter.^[14]

Timeline

• 1538 – the gullet (obsolete by 1552).^[2]
• 1637 – a channel or ravine worn by running water.^[2][11]
• 1768 – a deep artificial watercourse, gutter or drain.^[2]
• 1775 – verb, to make gullies in land.^[2][6]
• 1803 – a furrow or groove.^[2]
• 1840 – in Australia and New Zealand, an extended sense.^[2]
• 1887 – gully-washer, a heavy rainstorm.^[7]
• 1920 – a fielding position in cricket.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow channel or small valley worn in the earth by running water, often dry except after rain: The cattle sheltered in a gully below the ridge.^[11][12][2]
2. A deep, wide fissure in a mountain face, sometimes holding a stream or scree.^[12][11]
3. (New Zealand) A small valley covered with bush.^[12][2]
4. (cricket) The fielding position between point and the slips, or the fielder there.^[12][2]
5. A deep gutter or drain.^[11][2][15]

Verb

1. To wear gullies into land by erosion: Years of storms had gullied the slope.^[11][2]
2. To be eroded into gullies.^[11]

Word family

• gully-washer

gully² large knife

Etymology

The large knife is of unknown origin according to the OED and the Shorter Oxford.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster takes it as short for gully knife, in which the first part is guly, an obsolete Scottish dialect word, probably an alteration of golet (“gullet”);^[11] the American Heritage Dictionary gives the same explanation.^[8] The OED thinks a conjecture of Brockett's (1825) not impossible, though the sense "gullet" of the word for a channel is scantily recorded.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large knife: 1582, in a text of A. Melville.^[2][11] The combination gully-knife is recorded from 1725.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is Scottish and northern English.^[4] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland and the northern counties for a large knife, especially a butcher's or carving knife, and also for a sword, with quotations from Ramsay (1724), Burns ("Unskaith'd by Death's gleg gullie", 1787) and Scott (1818).^[13] Merriam-Webster labels both senses dialectal and British.^[11]

Timeline

• 1582 – a large knife.^[2][11]
• 1725 – gully-knife.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Scotland and northern England, dialect) A large knife, such as a butcher's knife or a carving knife.^[11][4][13]
2. (dialect) A sword.^[11][13]