Camden from Juneau, Alaska, uses the term gaffle to mean “snag,” as in to gaffle a Coke from the fridge. In his 1872 work A Dictionary of Etymology (Bookshop|Amazon), philologist Hensleigh Wedgwood notes that in a variety of languages, words like gaff and gaffle describe hook-like instruments used for grabbing. Gaffle shows up in American English around 1900 as a verb meaning “to grasp” or “to seize.” In modern hip-hop, gaffle can mean to “rob,” “steal,” “swindle,” or “be harassed or arrested by the police.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Gaffle, Meaning “to Snag” or “to Grab””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Camden. I’m calling from Genoa, Alaska.
Oh, hey Camden, welcome.
Hi, what’s up?
Well, there’s this word. I picked it up sort of by osmosis. The word is gaffle. So the usage of it would be, say you go over to your friend’s house and you want to grab a Coke from the fridge. You know, you might say, hey friend, I’m going to gaffle a Coke from the fridge. And it’s just sort of, I’m going to take this thing, and I’m not really asking permission, but I know that you would tell me yes if I was. You might say snag. Hey, man, you mind if I snag your shovel? But, you know, it’s this word gaffle. And I don’t really know where it comes from or where the usage of what it means. I picked it up from a D&D group in Anchorage. Is it something you guys know about?
Gaffle.
So G-A-F-F-L-E?
That would be my guess, yeah.
And you picked it up from a Dungeons & Dragons group. Was it part of a character somebody had built or just in casual conversation?
Oh, yeah. It was just really, I mean, the players, not so much from the game itself. It was the group of people that used the word.
Because there’s something particular about this word in that it tends to be more common in the northeast of the United States and in the east of Canada.
So I was just kind of surprised to see it pop up in Alaska.
Was anybody in that group from elsewhere in the country?
Yeah.
The one, the closest, I would say, is the gentleman from Missouri.
Oh, well, that’s not near the Northeast, but yeah.
And I’m from Missouri.
As far as I know, nobody uses gaffel.
But the other thing that interests me is that Alaska has a lot of fishing in it, and gaffle is related to a whole bunch of words that have to do with hooks and hooked poles and forks and other things like that.
Fork-like implements and hook-like implements.
Including the word gaff.
Gaff is a pole with a hook on it that you use to bring stuff in from the water, to pull fish in from the water.
And there’s a rather renowned book of etymology by Hensley Wedgwood.
What a name that is.
Hensley Wedgwood.
1872.
And he points out that all these different languages in Europe, particularly the Germanic and Scandinavian languages, have words for these hooked and forked instruments that seize or hold fast.
For example, in Danish and Swedish, they have gaffel, but it’s E-L at the end.
G-A-F-F-E-L.
And it refers to the same nautical gaff tool.
So it’s spelled gaffel, but it means gaff.
And that same word exists in other forms in Germanic and Celtic languages.
And it means fork or fork-like tool.
So all of these are related.
And so that brings us to English, American English.
And in the Dictionary of American Regional English, we have as early as 1900, gaffel shows up as a verb, meaning to grasp, to seize, to take hold of, to carry, to steal, to swindle, to arrest.
And that’s what you have.
I think in there we have to seize or to grasp or to steal is kind of what you were doing with your friend’s coke when you show up or your friend’s shovel, right?
Right, exactly, yeah.
It still shows up today.
You’ll find it in hip-hop lyrics, actually, meaning to rob, to steal, to run a scam, or to be harassed by the police or to be arrested by the police.
So this word has multiple lives, not only in fishing and not only in casual slang,
But in black English and in hip-hop language and in street language as well.
So it’s lived multiple lives over the centuries.
Oh, that’s fascinating.
I didn’t know any of that stuff.
Yeah, so gaff and gaffel are definitely related to this long history of Germanic words.
They all basically have something to do with seizing, taking,
I know we’re related to words having to do with hooked or forked implements or instruments.
Oh, all right.
Well, great.
And what do you have at the end of your arm?
You have a hooked or forked instrument.
Yeah, right.
So you’re fishing in your friend’s fridge.
Right, exactly.
All right, well, thanks for answering my question.
I really appreciate it.
Well, it’s our pleasure.
Yeah, you gaffled an answer.
Take care, Camden.
Appreciate the call.
You too.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
All right, bye-bye.
If you’d like us to find the treasure inside of some word that you know, give us a call at 877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org or chat with us on Twitter @wayword.
