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
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