Christopher -> Git???

I once worked with a real pratt, Nigel was his name and Pratt was his surname, although we all called him 'Bush' such was his adoration of Kate Bush, plus the fact that he looked a bit like her with a massive bush of hair

Regarding the name Git, I always think of the sketch in the Fast Show with the old gits . . .

You can't honestly say that Git is an abbreviation of Christopher

He may indeed be a bit of a lazy git (git being an insult), and maybe that's why he's called git?

Dictionary definition; "Git is a mild pejorative term with origins in English for a silly, incompetent, stupid, annoying, senile, lazy, hopeless, elderly or childish person" (get up ya lazy git) insult to the accused 'git'.

Surely Chris is the abbreviation of Christopher.

Hitchens wrote: »

Dublin folk just pronounce Kit as Git or Gih, that's how it came about.

Maybe that's what I heard so, that toddlers were pronouncing Kit as Git and it just caught on from that. Don't accept though that Dubliners in general have issues with pronouncing 'Kit' though. I'm from Dublin and have never heard anyone struggle with pronouncing it. When we were growing up if someone said 'Football Git' or 'Bicycle Repair Git' they'd be slagged to high heavens and no doubt get accused of having speech impediment or something. If they said they loved Michael's Knight's car 'Git', well, I doubt the fcukers would ever live it down.

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Yup, I'm aware of it. I knew a lad from Crumlin called Christopher and all his pals referred to him as Git (phonetically: "Gih" :pac:). Thought at the time that it was his nickname only, but then met another Christopher from Tallaght, known as Git also - that's when I realised it was a thing, and a Dublin thing specifically.

Yeah, it's defiantly a working class area slang. Known a few Gits and they were all from inner city Dublin. I don't live too far from Crumlin now and know of two Gits that were murdered not too long ago in fact. Won't name them here as the thread would show up in a search but if you Google 'Christopher Git Murder Dublin' you'll find two. Also, the IRA rapist in Love / Hate was called Christopher "Git" Loughman. Seriously *NSFW* work rape scene here (where he is referred to as Git a few times within the first few minutes):




On a lighter note, the name Git to me will always instantly bring I Went Down to mind.

fleet_admiral wrote: »

It was alwaya Kit to me, not Git

Still makes no sense to go from Christopher to Kit, but at least it's better than the pejorative & rather insulting term "git".

. . . . . .get out of bed (you lazy git)!