Comment on [deleted]
palordrolap@fedia.io 1 day ago
I had to go check, because I've heard a YouTuber use "gin up" a lot and they're not the sort to use slurs.
At time of writing [Wiktionary's entry on "gin up"] doesn't list it as a slur either, so I'm inclined to believe it isn't one.
What I think your employers / colleagues may have heard, or confused it with is "gip" / "gyp" (also soft 'g'), which is an abbreviation of "gypsy" and is generally used to mean "pain" or "a cause to complain", hence being a slur for travelling folk.
It's such a weak, ridiculous slur that many people don't even know its etymology and use it by imitation. It was very common on British TV up to the '90s, for example, and older British folk may still occasionally use it.
Drusas@fedia.io 23 hours ago
In the US, "gyp" is a verb which means to commit fraud against someone (as in, "I got gypped" if you bought something that turned out to be worthless). Similarly, almost no one knows the etymology or realizes that it's racist.
palordrolap@fedia.io 23 hours ago
This is probably anecdotal / subjective on my part, so take this under advisement, but I feel like that usage is more clearly a slur.
The bit about not knowing the etymology for the "cause to complain" version was me at one point, and I think I might have guessed the origin of the given verb without necessarily connecting it to the noun, despite the similarity.
FWIW, in my dialect there's also a verb "to gip", hard g, which is imitative (and so nothing to do with slurs) and means "to dry retch or feel one might be about to", which is almost never used in the past tense. Hearing it in the past tense, even with a soft g, would make me question everything, which may be another reason why I feel this way.
Drusas@fedia.io 22 hours ago
It's not clear that it's a slur because few Americans know that gyp is short for gypsy.