A geezer -- UK: [wide boy] -- A gang member, tough guy

[Hen Hanna]

(Dingbat &) Dr. Jai Maharaj posted:
>
> 18 English words that mean very different things in
> Britain and America
>
> independent.co.uk
>
> http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/18-english-words-that-mean-very-different-things-in-britain-and-america--b1tcKsqybb


[ 9. A geezer
[
[ UK: A gang member, tough guy
[
[ US: An old man

a queer, odd, or eccentric person -- used especially of
elderly men - merriam-webster.com



I wasn't aware of the [wide boy] (gang member) meaning.
and it wasn't in OED, when I checked a few years ago.

Did this meaning exist around 1900 ?


https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geezer

2.(Britain, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.
 [quotations ▲]

##2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing (ISBN 9781784184728)

He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.



##2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK (ISBN 9781848946163) He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.



##2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK (ISBN 9780755364800) When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.

[Daniel James]

In article <62ba5430-63df-46ed...@googlegroups.com>, Hen

Hanna wrote:
> [ 9. A geezer
> [
> [ UK: A gang member, tough guy

The SOED says that "geezer" stems from a dialect pronunciation of
"guiser", meaning a masquerader or mummer (literally, a person in a
guise, someone playing a part) -- and defines it as "A person, now
usually a man; an old fellow".

I've only ever heard it as a slang term meaning a man. Roughly
equivalent to "chap" or "bloke". I'm not aware of any usage suggesting
toughness or membership of any gang; nor do I recognize the suggestion
that a geezer is necessarily old (except in the phrase "old geezer").
--
Cheers,
Daniel.

[Hen Hanna]

In the US, (even without "old") it means
typically a cranky (or eccentric) old man
(typically not a rich man)
(typically not very fat)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geezer

Mountain Xpress-2016/04/12 -- This April we invite you to a fantastic show sponsored by The Council on Aging of Buncombe County's program The Geezer Gallery. The exhibition will showcase the work of lifelong master artists and we invite you to the ...



mummers were part beggars, part trick-or-treaters,
part travelling performing troupe.
(sometimes thieves and/or muggers)



I've been wondering about the following.
http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=geezer
geezer (n.) derisive word for an old man, 1885, according to OED a variant of obsolete Cockney guiser "mummer" (late 15c.; see guise).

e.g. in Cockney slang
(Lady Godiva) or Taxi Driver means "fiver"

so I was wondering
if there was some word X (which rhymes with guiser)
that means [old man].

"wiser" (ironic, sarcastic?) ? (as in "senator")
"miser" (stingy old man) ?

HH

[Don Phillipson]

"Hen Hanna" <henh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:62ba5430-63df-46ed...@googlegroups.com...

> http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/18-english-words-that-mean-very-different-things-in-britain-and-america--b1tcKsqybb

[ 9. A geezer
[
[ UK: A gang member, tough guy
[ US: An old man

> a queer, odd, or eccentric person -- used especially of
> elderly men - merriam-webster.com
>

> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geezer
>
> 2.(Britain, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a
> wide boy.

The tales of the famous cockney comedian Max Miller (1894-1963)
were all about "this geezer . . ." with no connotation of his being
aged or a spiv. Geezer = chap in Miller's idiolect.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)