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Gat

Hello,
my teacher was telling an anecdote about her childhood. She got in trouble with her mother who called her, being angry: "you little gat!!". She said that "gat" is worse than "brat" or "rascal", but not strong as 👁 Warning :warning:
"bitch".
I have done my research and I haven't been able to find anything about gat with this meaning.
It can be regional, my teacher is from Manchester.
Any BE mother tongue can give info about it? She doesn't remember why the word is used that way.

Thank you!
I've never heard it. But I don't profess to know every word in every dialect.

It has the sound of a word that might only have been handed down and used in her family.
"Get" is the more likely word.

"You little get!"

It means 'offspring' and the origin of the phrase was that the person was the offspring of a _____.

I can't remember what the blank is (probably some animal). I'll return if I can remember it.


get
an offspring or the total of the offspring, esp. of a male animal:the get of a stallion.
get - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
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I wouldn't be surprised if the mother had called her "a little cat", but I've never heard of "gat" in this context.

"Git/get" (illegitimate) is probably stronger than "bitch", isn't it?
I'm AE, so don't know the word. But in older BE books, a girl is called a "get", usually by someone who is angry and says "you little...".
OED has this definition for 'get':
b. Chiefly Sc., Irish English (north.), Eng. regional (north.), and U.S. regional. In contemptuous use: a child, a brat; (spec.) an illegitimate child, a bastard. Frequently with possessive indicating the (alleged) begetter.​

It cites recent usage. There is also a footnote suggesting it derives from the more general meaning of 'get' as offspring, but this non-pejorative meaning is now mostly confined to animals.

There is also a common BrE term 'git':
An unpleasant or contemptible person.​

OED has no relevant entry for 'gat'. I have never head of it (but then, I am not from Manchester) nor, for that matter, had I come across the pejorative meaning of 'get'.
Thank you everybody.
my teacher lives in Italy since forever, she was a teenager at the time she went here, and, actually, her first recall was "get", but she wasn't sure and said us that likely it was "gat". I think you have to be right and the word has to be "get".
"git" is plausible too. I'll tell her about next week.

Have a nice day
If the speaker is from the north of England or the Midlands, the word is undoubtedly git.
If the speaker is from the north of England or the Midlands, the word is undoubtedly git.
I'm pretty sure that 'get' is more Merseyside and Ireland these days. I'm open to correction though.
I've never heard get used in this way; you learn something every day 👁 Smile :)

Git, meaning idiot or fool, (anyone remember 'You randy Scouse git!'?) has been in use for many years. I am from the Midlands and 'stupid git!' is a common expletive in my vocabulary 👁 Big Grin :D
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The speaker is from Manchester. It's considered North England? According to Wiki is not in the Midlands.
And is close enough to the Merseyside I guess.
Just out of curiosity, what 'You randy Scouse git!' refers to???
'Git' isn't confined to the north of England. I grew up in southern England and 'git' was commonplace, but I never came across 'get' at all.
Just out of curiosity, what 'You randy Scouse git!' refers to???
Scouse is slang for a person from Liverpool, and is in widespread use throughout Britain. It is often used pejoratively (even without 'git', but the pairing 'scouse git' is common) and I suspect Liverpudlians aren't exactly pleased with this sobriquet. 'Randy' in BrE means to have a high sexual appetite, and often (but not always) implies making unwanted sexual advances.
There was an English TV series many years ago, called Till Death Us Do Part, whose protagonist was a foul-mouthed old man. He loathed his son-in-law, who was from Liverpool, and always referred to him as a randy Scouse git.
I agree that git is the most common of these words, and probably the nastiest. I was aware of “get” as a regional variation but thought it milder.


GET: British – dialect, informal A person whom the speaker dislikes or despises.
GIT: British – informal An unpleasant or contemptible person. (1940s: variant of get)
And is close enough to the Merseyside I guess.

Don't say that to a Mancunian. 👁 Smile :)


Just out of curiosity, what 'You randy Scouse git!' refers to???
It comes from a 1960s British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part in which one of the characters, the bigoted Alf Garnett, used to call his son-in-law a 'Scouse git', (which he pronounced 'Scarce git'), played by Tony Booth, who later became the (real) father-in-law of Tony Blair.
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There was an English TV series many years ago, called Till Death Us Do Part, whose protagonist was a foul-mouthed old man. He loathed his son-in-law, who was from Liverpool, and always referred to him as a randy Scouse git.
Maybe but the speaker was a Londoner if I remember rightly even if he was talking about a Scouser!
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