Observation from left field: in surfer parlance, a beginner or new kid is (was?) referred to as a "gremmie" or "grommet."
Your etymology of Fremlin/goblin/menial worker seems somehow related, at least in function. ("Gremmies" often being hazed or assigned menial tasks on their way to becoming "locals.")
Surfline says "gremmie" came into parlance in the 1950s, as derivation of "gremlin" (Jack Kerouac wasn't the only vet to drop out and bum around on his GI benefits, I guess).
http://www.surfline.com/surfaz/surfaz.cfm?id=822
So there's a nice circularity there.
--- On Fri, 10/3/08, kaligrafr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: kaligrafr <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Info About Gremlins?
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 12:58 PM
> Aloha,
>
> It's clear that the term "Gremlin" came into
> use during the early 20th
> century,
> even though earlier lore about the broad category of
> faeries includes
> beings
> with particular affinities for technology, making, and
> handicrafts. And
> it looks
> like the term arose somewhere in the community of British
> military pilots
> and/or those with ties to that community.
>
> Later, during WWII, the term and the being was disseminated
> widely through
> popular culture mass media, including a children's
> story by Roald Dahl,
> that
> story led to cartoon art from the Walt Disney studio,
> animated cartoons
> from
> the Warner Bros studio, and, no doubt, the typical
> organizational folkloric
> transmission/elaboration process of the wartime military.
>
> For instance, I probably picked up the notion of gremlins
> from watching
> those
> Warner Bros cartoons on TV as a kid.
>
> As for the term itself, I find myself favoring this
> derivation:
>
> <<Although today's word first emerged during
> World War II, evidence
> suggests a
> predecessor was in circulation among the RAF a bit earlier.
> In the 1920s
> it was
> used to refer to anyone saddled with a menial task but that
> sense never
> quite
> caught on. Charles Graves wrote in 'The Thin Blue
> Line' (1941) that the
> word
> referred to goblins that clambered out of Fremlin beer
> bottles, a
> popular beer
> among RAF pilots in India and the Middle East before World
> War II. Get it?
> Goblin + Fremlin = gremlin. No one has proposed a more
> convincing or
> authoritative
> explanation.>>
>
> --at Lycosiq beta
>
> From:
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/wotd.pl?date=2005-12-0
>
> Yes, this is persuasive, not conclusive. But there is a
> rare English
> surname,
> "Fremlin." They were brewers before and during
> WWII. And coining a new
> term by combining part of one that rhymes with the
> corresponding part of
> the other and maintaining the second word part is typical.
>
> Thanks for the help so far. Any further observations or
> suggestions?
>
> Musing The Gremlins Are Messing With Tales Of Their
> Origins! Rose,
>
> Pitch
|