or guv, subs. (common).—1. A father. Also RELIEVING OFFICER; OLD ’UN; PATER; NIBSO; and HIS NIBS. Applied to elderly people in general. Fr., le géniteur and l’ancien (= the old ’un).
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, ch. xx., p. 169. ‘You’re quite certain it was them, GOVERNOR?’ inquired Mr. Weller, junior. ‘Quite, Sammy, quite,’ replied his father.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 28. But—mind! don’t tell the GOVERNOR!
1852. The Comic Almanack, p. 19. Your father: Speaking to him, say ‘GUVNOR,’ or ‘Old Strike-a-light;’ of him, ‘The old un.’
1859. Witty Political Portraits, p. 111. Unconscious of the constitutional delusions on which his GOVERNOR has thrived.
1889. Answers, 20 April, p. 323. To call your father ‘The GOVERNOR’ is, of course, slang, and is as bad as referring to him as ‘The Boss,’ ‘The Old Man,’ or ‘The Relieving Officer.’
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Jan. It was mortifying to be done in that manner by a low fellow like Muggins, that I had always looked upon as a fool, and had made a butt of when the GUV. was out of the way.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 118. The GOVERNOR is in an awful funk about him.
2. (common).—A mode of address to strangers. Fr., bourgeois.
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi (Second Series). ‘At the Guelph Exhibition.’ Right, GUVNOR; we’ll come.
3. (colloquial).—A master or superior; an employer.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Boss; captain of the waiters; captain; chief; colonel; commander; chief bottle-washer; ganger; head-butler; head-cook and bottle-washer; gorger; omee; rum-cull.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Le pantriot (popular and thieves’: also = a young nincompoop); le, or la, pâte (popular: properly paste or dough); le naïf (printers’: obsolete); le herz or hers (thieves’: obviously from the German); le loncegué (thieves’: Fr., back-slang; = gonce, itself a slang term for a man); le galeux (popular = one with the itch); le grêle (popular: specifically a master-tailor); le singe (= monkey); le troploc; le nourisseur (= the grubber); l’ogre (specifically a FENCE); le notaire (= publican); le patron (colloquial: = governor).
ITALIAN SYNONYM.—Chielmiero (vulgar).
