Aloha,

Since the list members have been helpful about my wonderings about 
gremlins,
I figured I'd share a draft version of my blog post.

Musing Looking Puzzled About It! Rose,

Pitch

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Gremlins--20th Century Spirits Of Technology & Origins Of Terms

It's clear that the term "Gremlin" came into use during the early 20th 
century,
even though earlier lore about the broad category of fairies 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. The term seems first to have 
appeared
in print in an April 1929 number of "Aeroplane" published in Malta.

At first, gremlins concentrated their activities on aircraft, breaking 
components,
interfering with good operations of vital systems, altering the 
equilibrium of
aircraft in flight, and beglamouring or distracting the awareness of air 
crew.
Later, gremlins extended their activities into a host of different 
technologies,
so that we may talk about gremlins afflicting trains, bicycles, cars, 
ships,
computers, and other technologies.

Later, during WWII, the term and the notion of "gremlins" was disseminated
widely through popular culture mass media. Roald Dahl, having heard of 
"gremlins"
during his early R.A.F. war service, wrote a children's story, "The 
Gremlins." Dahl
tells of gremlins appearing first during the Battle of Britain, but 
clearly some pilots
knew of gremlins before then,

The full text of Dahl's story with the accompanying Disney Studios 
artwork is available
online at Roald Dahl Fans.com:

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/gremtext.php

In 2006, Dark Horse Books reprinted the book.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/10-665/The-Gremlins-HC

That story led to cartoon art from the Walt Disney studio, including a 
variety of unit insignia designs. For example, the Minnesota Civil Air 
Patrol had a Disney deigned patch with a
gremlin as their mascot. So did the Women Airforce Service Pilots, whose 
patch featured the
female gremlin mascot,"fifinella."

http://www.incountry.us/cappatches/MN/mnwg.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots

In addition, Warner Bros studio produced well-known animated cartoons 
featuring gremlins.
Both Falling Hare (1943) and Russian Rhapsody (1944) were produced by 
Bob Clampett.
I probably first learned of gremlins when I saw these cartoons on TV.

http://www.toonopedia.com/gremlins.htm

Plus, the large and active military organizations of WWII undoubtedly 
developed or
elaborated lots of organization/office folklore all on their own. Look 
at the
efflorescence of aircraft nose art during this period. And this Royal 
Air Force
Journal article "The Gremlin Question" by Hubert Griffith provides 
plenty of
information, including a poem filled with details.

http://www.angelfire.com/id/100sqn/gremlins.html

About the possible origins of the term, The Online Etymological 
Dictionary offers:

<<gremlin
"small imaginary creature blamed for mechanical failures," oral use in 
R.A.F.
aviators' slang from Malta, Middle East and India said to date to 1923. 
First
printed use perhaps in poem in journal "Aeroplane" April 10, 1929; 
certainly
in use by 1941, and popularized in World War II and picked up by Americans
(e.g. "New York Times" Magazine April 11, 1943). Possibly from a dial. 
survival
of O.E. gremman "to anger, vex" + -lin of goblin; or from Ir. gruaimin 
"bad-tempered
little fellow." Surfer slang for "young surfer, beach trouble-maker" is 
from 1961.>>
--Online Etymology Dictionary

Lycos iq offers:

<<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 Lyco iq origin is persuasive, not conclusive. There is a rare 
English surname,
"Fremlin." They were brewers before and during WWII. According to "The 
Directory
of UK Real Ale Breweries," Fremlins Ltd was located in Maidstone, Kent.

http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/739

This page from the Royal Engineers 37 Armoured  Squadron web site 
provides some
photos of the Fremlins Brewery building, beer labels, and coasters. 
Fremlins featured
an elephant called "Noddy" in its graphics.

http://www2.army.mod.uk/royalengineers/org/35regt/37sqn/traditions.htm

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, a 
portmanteau word.
"Frem" shifts to "Grem," keeping the "lin."

Interestingly, "gremlin" inspired another portmanteau word which has 
itself become
recognized in popular culture--"Femlin."

<<The Femlin is a character used on the Party Jokes page of Playboy 
magazine.>>

<<Femlins were created by LeRoy Neiman in 1955 when publisher/editor 
Hugh Hefner
decided the Party Jokes page needed a visual element. The name is a 
portmanteau of
"female" and "gremlin." They are portrayed as mischievous black and 
white female
sprites, apparently ten to twelve inches tall, wearing only opera 
gloves, stockings and
heels. They are usually drawn in two or three panel vignettes, 
interacting with various
life-sized items such as shoes, jewelry, neckties, and so forth.>>

<<Femlins have appeared on the Party Jokes page in every issue since 
their creation,
and were featured on the magazine's cover numerous times, either as 
drawn by Neiman
or in photographed tableaus which utilized sculpted clay models.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femlin

So what have I got here?

Gremlins were first recognized by name early in the 20th Century by 
British airmen
as unusual beings who did things to hinder aircraft operations and 
flight. The term
may have come from an Old English dialect survival or an Irish word. Or 
the term
may have been coined as a portmanteau word tying together the name of a 
popular
brewery and a diminutive. (For no particular reason beyond a taste for 
good beers,
I favor this origin story.)

The functions that gremlins perform, however, involving handicrafts, 
technology, and
trick-playing reach back further into old lore. Elves, pixies, sprites, 
dwarves, goblins,
imps, and other mythological beings took an interest in human 
technologies and
makings, sometimes helping, sometimes not. So while gremlins fiddling 
with aircraft
strikes us as a new activity, maybe its more our human new activity that 
called forth
the gremlins and gave us that term. And a little later, a popcult term 
for a sexy magazine
mascot.

Maybe gremlins are beings we earlier called other names.

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