Gab (v.): chat. ‘If I go gabbing out of me, you can tell me to shut up’ (Hanley 2009 [1950]: 161). ‘Gabbin away like Father Bunloaf’ (Simpson 1995: 23). ‘We know you're workin’ as fast as you're gabbin’’ (Fagan 2007 [1950s]: 265). Recorded from l.18c.; probably from gob.

Gack (n.): cocaine. ‘He took out a chubby wrap of gack … “I'm going to cover you in cocaine”’ (Sampson 1999: 273). ‘Could do with a bumper of that gack of Peter's, fuckin wake me up’ (Griffiths 2003: 11). Recorded from l.20c.; possibly from Irish English ‘gack’, ‘chatter idly’.

Gaff (n.): house, flat; place, town. ‘“Me Gaff” meaning my flat, my house, etc.’ (Minard 1972: 40). ‘Risky gaff, Blackpool’ (Sampson 1998: 81). ‘A line of beak back in me own gaff’ (Griffiths 2003: 95). Recorded from m.18c.; cant ‘gaff’, ‘travelling fair’, extended to a general sense of ‘place’ and then narrowed again to mean ‘flat, house’; from the Romani ‘gav’, ‘fair, market, village’.

Gaff (adj.): first rate, excellent. ‘A lot of other fellows in gaff top's ‘ats’ (Hall 2004 [1939]: 40). Recorded from m.20c.; derivation unknown.

Gaffer (n.): boss, head person; father. ‘Was made a “gaffer” over a number of men’ (Roberts 1893: 12). ‘Run round the back and fetch the gaffer’ (Hall 2004 [1939]: 26). ‘Snubbing the wine-gaffer when he looked down his nose at them’ (Cross 1951: 78). ‘Gaffer: a boss, foreman, overseer or even the father of a family’ (Lane 1966: 39). ‘You quiz/a gaffer about fishing in a lake’ (Simpson 1995: 57). ‘The gaffers are outside’ (Fagan 2007 [1950s]: 50). Recorded from l.16c.; originally a rural term of respect for an older person; the sense of ‘person in charge’ is a m.19c. development; probably an abbreviation of ‘godfather’.