Despite being very common, the word “guy” has been at our disposal to mean “person” for only the past 150 years. The original “guy” was Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the British Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605 as an act of protest against mistreatment of Catholics. Since then, bizarrely clad effigies, or “guys” have been burnt on this anniversary, called “Bonfire Night”, in Great Britain (and also in Newfoundland). Odd-looking men started to be called “guys” in the early 1800s, and then gradually, in North America at least, the term was applied to people in general.
Yes. Quite indiscriminately. I often hear groups of girls and boys addressed as "You guys" by teachers, camp counselors and swim instructors etc.
ReplyDelete"you guys" is one of the ways we remedy our lack of a plural second person pronoun in English. Much like "youse" and "y'all".
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