What's the connection between

• gin the alcoholic ambrosia,
• the cotton gin,
• to gin up support for a position, and
• the card game gin rummy?

They all contain the word "gin."

(Gee, Shufitz, that was an easy one!)

Well, Shu, I found this site talking about the different uses of the word. They seem to have different etymologies (i.e. from different languages). The cotton gin comes from the French word "engin", meaning mechanical contrivance. Then there are dialect meanings where it can mean "before", "if", "when" or "by". Then, there is the Latin "juniperus" where the liquor came from.

I didn't find anything about "gin up" (and I have never heard that), nor the card game. Good question!