One of the recent newsletters reminded me of a phrase I've heard in a few films, so I wrote him back to ask about it. However, I was asked to put it to the forum, as he'd thought it was another phrase used there (which DID sound familiar, too...)

So, when someone is in a hurry and encounters a crowd that slows their passage, what is the phrase they usually yell, telling them to move aside? I thought it was "gain way" (or maybe "gain weigh'), but our wordcrafter thought it was "gang way". Like I said, the last DOES sound familiar, but I still think I've heard the other(s?) a few times. What's the reigning opinion, folks?

KB
Khyranleander

My vote goes for "Gangway !"

I have never heard it any other way, but until it's written there's hardly any way to know how the speaker might spell it.

Ditto. And I'm pretty sure I've seen it in writing that way, too.

Its origin might be interesting.

Etymology: OE gangweg, thoroughfare (< gang, in obs. sense “a going” & way)

noun
a passageway for entering, leaving, or going past an opening in a vessel’s bulwarks or railing that allows passage on or off <by way of a> gangplank

make room; clear the way

That's the definition I found in one online dictionary. It's also the way I have always heard it or read it.

The OED Online dates the word to about 1000, and the nautical definition to 1688.

quote:

gangway
f. Used interjectionally, as a demand to clear the way.
1925 FRASER & GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 101 Gangway, make way for a naval officer! An expression, heard sometimes among New Army men in the War,..meaning ‘Get out of the way’, ‘Stand back’, ‘Clear a passage’. ‘Gangway!’ is ordinarily a common warning call on board ship, meaning as above.
1942 O. NASH Good Intentions 56 Gangway, you motoring proletariat.
1946 E. O'NEILL Iceman Cometh (1947) IV. 219 Gangway for two good whores!

Terms,Traditions and Customs of the Naval Service

quote:

Gangway. From the Anglo-Saxon "gang." Meaning to go, or make a passage in or cut through. An opening in a ship to give entrance for boarding or leaving the ship. It may be either an opening in a bulkhead or railing.
Also, "Gangway," a command to step aside or make way. Who remembers not the messcooks cry, "Gangway, hot stuff." Or in a jovial mood, "Gangway, lady with a baby."

Heh, looking pretty solid on what mode is correct/prefered. And to be honest, the more I thought about it, the less certain I was that I'd actually seen the other used. (shrug) Guessing had a mite of a short in the brain circuitry. Thanks, everyone!

Interesting bit of cross-threading.

German Eingang is "Way In" and "Ausgang" is way out, so this another tautology - Gangway is literally, "way way".

quote:

Who remembers not the messcooks cry, "Gangway, hot stuff."

I, for one, remember this not.