gin

[glenis]

why dosn't gin start with a j ?

[Janetex]

search "gin geneva" and you'll find an interesting story.

[Quizmonster]

For much the same reason as 'giant' doesn't, really...namely, there's no reason why it should. As Janet's answer suggests, 'gin' is actually an abbreviation of the Swiss city-name 'Geneva' and it doesn't start with a 'j' either!

There is, of course, the word 'jinn', another form of the word 'genie', meaning an Arabic spirit. (That's 'spirit' in the sense of ghostlike creature rather than an alcoholic spirit!)

[Quizmonster]

I got overwrought in my earlier answer! I should have said that gin was an abbreviation of 'geneva' with a small not a capital letter. Why? Because it has nothing to do with the city of that name; rather it is an abbreviation of 'geneva', the Dutch word for 'juniper'. My apologies for the error...I really shouldn't be up this early! Cheers

[woofgang]

Quick, the world is about to end...QM makes error!!!! ;-)

[Quizmonster]

Yep...mea maxima culpa, Woofgang. It was one of these situations where, the minute one says something, one adds: "What on earth are you bloomin' talking about, you fool?" (Except that I never - ever - say "bloomin'"!) Sadly, I'd already posted it, so I hang my head in shame. I really must do better. Either that or AnswerBank is going to have to provide an editing facility.

[Janetex]

If only, if only, if only, I popped in again earlier to have a joilly good argument with quizzie! Had the audacity to doubt me yet again.

[Quizmonster]

As if I would ever doubt you, J! I obviously thought in my moment of madness - fortunately not on Hampstead Heath! - that you had adopted this nutty lower-case mania that infects everything nowadays and so had deliberately avoided the capital 'G'. (Well, that's my story anyway.)

[franob]

mmm, thinks, why dosn't knee start with n? or getting down to pronounciation, why isn't soot pronounced the same as hoot, or coot the same as foot, I love this language!

[fennster]

Why doesn't genie start with a J? Welcome to the english langauge.

[fennster]

No thinking about, when G procedes an I or an E it sometimes has a J sound to it, with exceptions of course. Examples are generous, genome, gigantic, gigalo, etc.