ginger [OE] The word ginger can be traced back to a word in Sanskrit (the ancient language of India), which became zingiberis in Greek and eventually made its way into English in the 9th century. There is no connection between this and the adverb gingerly [E16th]. In early usage this was used to describe the way a person danced or walked, and meant ‘with small elegant steps’ or ‘daintily’. Later it developed a more negative meaning, ‘mincingly’. The modern meaning, ‘carefully or cautiously’, dates from the late 16th century. Its origin is unknown. A ginger group [E20th], a group within a political party or movement that presses for stronger action on an issue, comes from a practice, recorded from the early 19th century, by unscrupulous horse dealers of putting a piece of ginger up the bottom of a worn-out horse in order to make it seem more lively and frisky. This led to the metaphorical use of ginger up to mean ‘to make more lively’, and ginger group developed from this. In the past gingerbread [ME] was traditionally decorated with gold leaf. This is why take the gilt off the gingerbread [E19th] means ‘to make something no longer appealing or to spoil the illusion’. Gilt [ME] is the old past participle of gild (from the same root as gold); these days we use gilded.