"ginger talk" meaning in English

See ginger talk in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: ginger talks [plural]
Etymology: From the idea of gingering a horse to make it seem more lively, or adding ginger to spice up a food or beverage; compare ginger group. Perhaps coined by Worthington C. Holman, author of Ginger Talks: The Talks of a Sales Manager to His Men (1905). Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} ginger talk (countable and uncountable, plural ginger talks)
  1. (US, obsolete) A speech, particularly one given to salespeople, aimed at inspiring and boosting confidence. Tags: US, countable, obsolete, uncountable Related terms: pep talk
    Sense id: en-ginger_talk-en-noun-BMvNMoAt Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the idea of gingering a horse to make it seem more lively, or adding ginger to spice up a food or beverage; compare ginger group. Perhaps coined by Worthington C. Holman, author of Ginger Talks: The Talks of a Sales Manager to His Men (1905).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ginger talks",
      "tags": [
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "ginger talk (countable and uncountable, plural ginger talks)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "attestations": [
        {
          "date": "Early to mid 20ᵗʰ century.",
          "references": []
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              136,
              148
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1917, Harry L. Hollingworth and A. T. Poffenberger, chapter 13, in Applied Psychology, page 246:",
          "text": "[…] the psychology of salesmanship, when it does not degenerate into a collection of bromidic maxims or a brisk and stimulating bit of “ginger talk,” consists for the most part of the general facts of human nature […]",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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          "ref": "1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 15, in Babbitt, page 191:",
          "text": "Come on fellows, let’s work up some real genuine enthusiasm and all boost together for the snappiest dinner yet! Elegant eats, short ginger-talks and memories shared together of the brightest, gladdest days of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              25,
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          "ref": "1954, Eleanor Bayer and Leo Bayer, Third Best Sport, page 21:",
          "text": "Thats’ Art’s number one “Ginger Talk,” honey. He gives it to the salesmen every Monday.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A speech, particularly one given to salespeople, aimed at inspiring and boosting confidence."
      ],
      "id": "en-ginger_talk-en-noun-BMvNMoAt",
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        [
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete) A speech, particularly one given to salespeople, aimed at inspiring and boosting confidence."
      ],
      "related": [
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          "word": "pep talk"
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      ],
      "tags": [
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  "word": "ginger talk"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the idea of gingering a horse to make it seem more lively, or adding ginger to spice up a food or beverage; compare ginger group. Perhaps coined by Worthington C. Holman, author of Ginger Talks: The Talks of a Sales Manager to His Men (1905).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ginger talks",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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      "expansion": "ginger talk (countable and uncountable, plural ginger talks)",
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          "date": "Early to mid 20ᵗʰ century.",
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      "categories": [
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        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
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      ],
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          ],
          "ref": "1917, Harry L. Hollingworth and A. T. Poffenberger, chapter 13, in Applied Psychology, page 246:",
          "text": "[…] the psychology of salesmanship, when it does not degenerate into a collection of bromidic maxims or a brisk and stimulating bit of “ginger talk,” consists for the most part of the general facts of human nature […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              133,
              145
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          "ref": "1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 15, in Babbitt, page 191:",
          "text": "Come on fellows, let’s work up some real genuine enthusiasm and all boost together for the snappiest dinner yet! Elegant eats, short ginger-talks and memories shared together of the brightest, gladdest days of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              25,
              36
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          ],
          "ref": "1954, Eleanor Bayer and Leo Bayer, Third Best Sport, page 21:",
          "text": "Thats’ Art’s number one “Ginger Talk,” honey. He gives it to the salesmen every Monday.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A speech, particularly one given to salespeople, aimed at inspiring and boosting confidence."
      ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete) A speech, particularly one given to salespeople, aimed at inspiring and boosting confidence."
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "countable",
        "obsolete",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ginger talk"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (ade7ec3 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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