Gash

[lankeela]

A friend who was in the RAF used to say if he wanted a spare scrap of paper 'have you a gash bit of paper', or 'is that paper gash' meaning spare, scrap, unwanted.

Is this peculiar to the RAF, or does anyone else use it? I assume that is how it is spelt, although I suppose it could be 'gache', and maybe come from the French?

[jno]

my dictionary of slang says - with a question mark, so it's not sure - that it might be from a dialect word gaishen, meaning a skeleton or something ridiculous, and so have come to mean something spare.

Once in a while you see a mistake in a newspaper - for instance, where a caption to a photo just reads 'write caption here' and a journalist has forgotten to do so. Journalists refer to the words you see as gash text, something which is meant to replaced by a proper caption.

[Quizmonster]

In a book published in 1925 called Soldier and Sailor Words, 'gashions' is listed as meaning 'extra/spare'. Clearly, the last four letters were later themselves seen as spare and the word became simply 'gash'.
It certainly seems to have had a military origin even if not specifically from the RAF. As the RAF was first formed in 1918, 1925 was probably a bit early for it to be producing its very own slang that had transfered to civilian use.

[dundurn]

Gach� means spolied or wasted in French, so it's a good candidate for the original word. It's originally Navy slang as far as I know and basically means "what I consider rubbish but you may find valuable". So anything gash is liable to be disposed of without warning but may also be given away without concern for its residual value. The sort of thing that clutters up an otherwise empty space "because it might come in handy one day" until what you reallly need is an empty space in which case you chuck it over the side.

[Panic Button]

Air cabin crew use the word aswell.

It also can be used as a verb, to gash something.

A rubbish sack is a gash bag.

It is a nice short easy word to use, instead of 'throw it away', garbage, or rubbish.

[chakka35]

In Jackspeak, Rick Jolly's fascinating book about 'Royal Navy Slanguage', there is the following:

"gash, a widely-used word with three [sic]distinct meanings:
1. Anything surplus to requirements. "You can have it, it's gash."
2. Anything useless. "Don't take him; he's a really gash hand."
3. Rubbish or refuse; "D'ye hear there? ditch no gash." A gash bucket is a waste-bin while a gash-chute is a pipe or ramp for ditching gash at sea.
4. "Any gash talent here?": a question posed when entering a party to discover whether there are any nice uncommitted ladies present. "

[lankeela]

Thanks folks, what a knowledgeable lot you are!

[GuyDWatson]

My Father was in the Navy and he always referred to a waste paper basket as a 'gash bin'. I also believe that rubbish was thrown overboard from a ship down a 'gash chute' & I understand that the origin of the word gash is naval but has been adapted by the other forces.