Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1808-1860, 1923-1927
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GANGER, n. Also †genger. [′gɑŋər]
1. A walker, one who goes on foot in contrast to one in a vehicle (Dmf. 1899 Country Schoolmaster (ed. Wallace) 348; Ayr.8 1954); a goer, esp. a speedy goer. Also in n.Eng. dial.n.Sc. 1808 Jam.:
A gude genger, a good walker.Lnk. 1808 W. Watson Poems 55:
I thought, tho' I be nae great ganger, My step grew twa three inches langer.Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvii.:
The stringhalt will gae aff when it's gaen a mile; it's a weel-kenn'd ganger; they ca' it Souple Tam.Slg. c.1860 Trans. Slg. Nat. Hist. Soc. (1924) 23:
Ye dash! dash! dash! Regairdless through humplock an' gott, For the gangers on fit your splairges get.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 143:
A quick ganger o' eerands.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 143, obsol.:
"Ee'll gaze at the riders till the gangers gang by!" = you will let ordinary opportunities pass while looking fruitlessly for extraordinary ones.Ags. 1927 V. Jacob Northern Lights 31:
But the blythest gangers step aye their lane.
†2. One who is going away. Phr. comers and gangers, people who come into and go out of a house, visitors. Also in n.Eng. dial.Rnf. 1815 R. Tannahill Poems (1876) 267:
The comers were cheerie, the gangers were blearie, Despairin or hopin for Barochan Jean.Sc. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 72:
Of the two lower divisions, but-the-house was perhaps the most important. . . . It was the general rendez-vous of all the comers and gangers about the family.
†3. A shop-walker (Cld. 1880 Jam., ganger).
[O.Sc. has gangar, -er, in senses 1. and 2. above, from 1424. Gang, v., 1. + suff. -er].
