noun
General Slang
gamgee
· noun · brummie
Cotton wool — Birmingham's name for it, after the surgeon who invented the dressing.
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Definitions
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Cotton wool. The local Birmingham word, after Joseph Sampson Gamgee — the Queen's Hospital surgeon who invented Gamgee Tissue (cotton wool wadded between gauze) in 1880. The word stuck so hard in Brum that Tolkien, a Birmingham boy, lifted it for Sam Gamgee in Lord of the Rings — confirmed in his own letters.
“Pass us a bit of gamgee for this cut.”
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gamgee In A Sentence
Pass us a bit of gamgee for this cut.
Origin & Usage
Coined from Birmingham surgeon Joseph Sampson Gamgee's 1880 invention 'Gamgee Tissue', a cotton-wool surgical dressing. The brand-name became the generic local word for cotton wool.
Variants
gamgee tissue
People Also Ask
Is this where Tolkien got Sam Gamgee's name?
Yes — Tolkien confirmed in a 1954 letter to Naomi Mitchison that hearing 'gamgee tissue' as a Birmingham child gave him the surname.
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