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When did the word "guys" begin to include people of both sexes? I seem to remember that when I was in high school (1960s) young women would recoil at being referred to as guys, even as a part of a group that included both boys and girls. Nowadays you rarely hear "gals", but "guys" is everywhere (alas!) when referring to men and women of any age.
I think it's a regionalism. I grew up in Nevada in the 70s and 80s hearing "you guys" used to mean plural you, regardless of gender, but I've seen cases where that causes confusion elsewhere.
I, too, was in high school in the sixties but my experience with guys comes from my elementary school days. In Fort Worth, Texas (born and raised) calling people "guys" was something only "yankees" did. The only people we heard it from were some who moved from the north and they called both sexes "guys" (this is in the fifties). When I visited my cousins in El Paso I discovered that it was common out there to use "guys" for both sexes. This spoiled my belief that it was only something from the north. By the time I was in high school, it was starting to be common in Fort Worth as well.
It makes perfect sense to me, since the male gender is used as the neuter gender as well.
I find it ironic that "guys" is OK for both genders (accepting the male as neuter), but we hear constructions like "chairwoman" or "chairperson." "Chairman" is not a gender-specific noun, so why change it?
"Chairman" is the formal term for the chair; when addressing directly, you say "Mr Chairman" or "Madam Chairman".
As for "guys", my memory accords with the majority here: When I was young it seemed to be mostly male, the male equivalent of "gals", but even then you could refer to a mixed group as "guys". (And yes, I was a northerner in my youth.) I'm guessing that some feminists' determination to perceive an insult in "gals" contributed somewhat to "guys" becoming more gender-neutral, but it could be it was headed in that direction already. Nowadays the terms I use to a mixed crowd can vary with the context, especially with how formal I want to be: Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys, Folks, People, Y'all, somewhere in there. I used "guys" as the general form of address in an email to a listserv less than an hour ago; but even then I imagined some of the women complaining about it ("I am not a GUY!").
I think the term is still in transition. "I'm going out with the guys" sounds much like "...with the boys", but "hey, can any of you guys help me with this?" could definitely be a mix.
I think it is becoming/has become, as telemath mentions, the plural form of you: I, you, he/she/it; we, you guys, they. When my wife and I go to a nice restaurant, the nineteen-year-old server invariably asks, "Are you guys ready to order?" I hate it, but not as much as when the same server comes back later and asks, "How was you guys's meal?" Or sometimes "your guys's." If I were running the restaurant…
Peter
Tromboniator, it's clear you're not from the northeast of the country. In western Pennsylvania you start hearing "youse guys", and you hear it more and more reliably as you travel east and north. Having been raised a Midwesterner I never adopted that one, but I don't mind "you guys".
Come to think of it, in eastern PA and in NJ you can often hear "youse" by itself. Is it a plural form of "you", like the southern "y'all"? Or does it just mean "you", either plural or singular. Anyone know?
(No southerner uses "y'all" for a single person. "Y'all" is always plural; any other use marks a northerner trying to fit in.)
Bob Bridges said:
Tromboniator, it's clear you're not from the northeast of the country.
Ha! Rural NY. I grew up in the '50s and '60s, heavily influenced by a nearby large university of international character. "Youse" was always considered to be from "The City" and therefore reprehensible. I could be mistaken, but I have no recollection of "you guys" being used except in reference to a group of males, usually young.
Really?! The city—I never knew that. I first encountered "youse guys" when my family moved from MN to the Pittsburgh area, and I'd always heard it got thicker toward Philly and NJ, but I don't remember anyone saying it was a city thing. Could be, though; I'll file it away. So would you say it doesn't continue up into New England? Is it centered around NYC and Philly, do you think? I'm inclined to believe I've heard of it getting as far north as Boston.
“Youse†is stereotypical of a Glaswegian speaking in Scotland, and is used (“yoused� 
) in exactly the way described above; a bus conductor might be heard to shout to stragglers at the end of the route, “A' youse come on an' get aff†(“All of you hurry up and de-bus!â€).
Furthermore “yin†and “yins†is also used (Billy Connolly is known throughout Scotland, and by extension the rest of Britain, as “The Big Yinâ€, a nickname gained in reference to his height when he worked in the shipyards and was known around the Glasgow pubs and clubs, to distinguish him from his father, another Billy, who was shorter and thus the “The Wee Yinâ€.
A small child in Glasgow and the S.W. of Scotland is called a “wean†(pronounced “wayneâ€, as in Bruce Wayne), from “wee yinâ€.
Y'all isn't used anywhere in the U.K., as far as I know.
The use of "yous" (pronounced yooz) was common during my childhood in the Midwest. Just picked it up from my parents, never thought about the correctness, all my friends used it too. Figured it was the plural of "you" until I was corrected by a teacher somewhere in grade school. People back there still use it all the time.
Martha Barnette
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