Word Confusion: Guise versus Guys

Plural for the noun: guises
Gerund: guising

Third person present verb: guises
Past tense or past participle: guised
Present participle: guising

Plural for the noun: guys
Gerund: guying

Third person present verb: guys
Past tense or past participle: guyed
Present participle: guying

General external appearance

• Aspect
• Semblance

Assumed appearance

[Archaic] Manner, mode, or style of dress

[Obsolete] Customary behavior

• Habit

Proper noun:
[Geographical] Originally, a seigneurie (fief), it became a county in France in 1417 for René, a younger son of Louis II of Anjou

Verb, intransitive:
[Scottish and North England] To appear or go in disguise

To act as a mummer in a folk play

Verb, transitive:
To dress or dress up

• Attire

Noun:
[Informal; mid-19th century; guys] A man ²

• People of either sex

[British] A figure representing Guy Fawkes, burned on a bonfire on Guy Fawkes’ Night, and often displayed by children begging for money for fireworks ³

A rope or line fixed to the ground to secure a tent or other structure ⁴

A person of either sex, especially a man

• A fellow ⁵
  • Used of and to women in address, and then almost invariably in the plural, but seldom in reference or in the singular

A woman’s fiancé, husband, lover, etc. ⁶

Proper noun:
A male given name from a Germanic word meaning woods ⁷

Verb, transitive:
Make fun of ²

• Ridicule

Secure with a line or lines ³

Telemarketing and selling under the guise of market research.

It was an old concept in a new guise.

He approached me under the guise of friendship.

Greek and Roman gods frequently seduced maidens in the guise of a shepherd.

He wore the guise of a merchant.

Proper Noun:
Mary de Guise was wife to both Louis II of Orleans, Duke of Longueville, and James V, King of Scots. Her daughter would become Mary, Queen of Scots.

François de Lorraine was the second Duc de Guise who lived from 1519–63 and was a French general and statesman as well as Mary de Guise’s brother.

Verb, intransitive:
The boys were guised when they went forth.

We chose to guise to avoid identification.

Verb, transitive:
They were children guised as cowboys.

We guised as clowns.

Noun:
Hey, they’re nice guys.

You guys want some coffee?

We’ll be needing several guys on that evening.

Get those guys fastened down. We’re in for a hell of a storm.

Hey guys, let’s go shoe shopping.

What’d you guys do for Mother’s Day?

Just remember he’s my guy.

Proper Noun:
Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.

Guy Burgess was a British foreign office official and spy who fled to the former Soviet Union in 1951 with Donald Maclean.

Guy de Maupassant was a famous French novelist who died young.

Verb, transitive:
He didn’t realize I was guying the whole idea.

It was set on concrete footings and guyed with steel cable.

They’re guying the containers down right now.

1. 1972.
2. Mid-19th century.
3. Early 19th century, named after Guy Fawkes.
4. Late Middle English and probably of Low German origin. It is related to the Dutch gei meaning brail and the German Geitaue meaning brails.
5. 1876 through today.
6. 1940s through today.
7. In the eleventh century, Guy came to England with the Normans and is derived, via the French, from the Old German Wido, either from wit, meaning wide, or from witu meaning wood.