I Guess!

Before he wrote his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Henry Fowler and his brother Francis wrote a little language guide called The King’s English (2d ed., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908). Like it's big cousin, TKE takes a pragmatic view. The authors tell us usage nannies are frequently downright wrong in what they proscribe and they say what's right is often no more than what the ear tells us is right. They also give plenty of examples of turgid, ugly, vague, awkward, ambiguous, and misleading prose.

In its section on Americanisms the book says our U.S. idioms are foreign words "and should be so treated." But it also says many of these vulgarities have deep English roots. "I guess" is the first example. F and F say the English man on the street would instantly name that phrase as a pure Yankee original. But, they say, it's not so. "Inquiry into it would at once bear out the American contention that what we are often rude enough to call their vulgarisms are in fact good old English. I gesse is a favourite expression of Chaucer's, and the sense he sometimes gives it is very finely distinguished from the regular Yankee use." They add, however, that good old English doesn't always, as in this instance, make "good new English." One is advised not to use "I guess" when writing the King's English. They say new Americanisms, are all well and good, but — good old English or not — they belong in American speech and writings, not English: "English and the American language and literature are both good things; but they are better apart than mixed."

Not surprisingly, the nineteenth century dictionaries of American usage give special attention to "I guess." One says educated citizens condemn it. Another says: "There is, probably, no word in the Dictionary that has given more occasion to animated discussion than this; [it is] quoted almost by every writer in America as one of the most obtrusive and repulsive Americanisms."[1] Another says English purists have mercilessly, but quite wrongly, twitted Americans about it.[2] Linguists point out that the English in England have long used "I guess" to mean "I conjecture" and people there as well as in the US would say "I guess" when unsure of a result.

What Americans would (most colorfully) do and English (boringly) not dare is to use "I guess" when there is no uncertainty. One lexicographer explains thus: "The only difference between the English and the American use of the word is, probably, that the former denotes a fair, candid guess, while the Yankee who guesses is apt to be quite sure of what he professes to doubt. As he only calculates when he has already solved his problem, so he also guesses when he has made sure of his fact. 'I guess I do,' is with him an expression of confident certainty. He is, however, quite as prone to go to the other extreme and to use the word without any other meaning than mere 'thinking,' as when he says: 'I guess he is well,' or, 'I guess I won't go to-day.'" Another gives as example this emphatic assertion: "Jem, would n't you like a julep to cool you off this sultry morning?" "I guess I would!"[3] Yet another dictionary gives this usage: "'I rayther guess there's petticuts goes with them mud-mashers.' The gal she flamed up at that, and says she: 'I guess you're barkin' up the wrong saplin'.'"[4] And here's one more:

Rev. Mr. Selah (to desk editor of the Daily Roarer) 'Mr. Seezars, are you going to publish my prayer in full?'

Desk Editor 'In full? Well, I guess not. (Changing his tone) 'However, we'll do what we can for you. By swiping out the flub-dub and guff, I guess we'll have room to put in the points.' (Detroit Free Press, August, 1888).[5]

The author of an article published in 1881 gives this fanciful derivation:

When an American says, "I guess so," he does not mean "I think it may be so," but more nearly "I know it to be so." The expression is closely akin to the old English saying, "I wis." Indeed, the words "guess" and "wis" are simply different forms of the same word. Just as we have "guard" and "ward," "guardian" and "warden," "Guillaume" and "William," "guichet" and "wicket," etc., so have we the verbs to "guess" and to "wis" (in the Bible we have not "I wis," but we have "he wist"). "I wis" means nearly the same as "I know," and that this is the root meaning of the word is shown by such words as "wit," "witness," "wisdom," the legal phrase "to wit," and so forth. "Guess" was originally used in the same sense; and Americans retain that meaning, whereas in our modern English the word has changed in significance.[6]

I guess I'll let John Farmer have the last words. He closes his treatment of "guess" with these:

'What is your age?' asked Colonel James
(that dreadful question to a lady).
'I GUESS I am about forty.'
'You GUESS? Don't you know?'
'Well, forty next June.'
-- New York Herald, March 27th, 1888.

She walked into the dry goods store
      With stately step and proud,
She turn'd the frills and laces o'er,
      And pushed aside the crowd.
She asked to see some rich brocade,
      Mohairs and grenadines,
She looked at silk of every shade —
      And then at velveteens.
She sampled jackets blue and red,
      She tried on nine or ten,
And then she toss'd her head, and said
      She GUESS'D she'd call again.
-- Texas Siftings, June 23rd, 1888.[7]

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Some sources:

Americanisms: the English of the New world by Maximilian Schele de Vere (C. Scribner & company, 1872)

Dictionary of Americanisms, a glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States by John Russell Bartlett (Little, Brown and Co., 1889)

Americanisms, old and new by John S. Farmer (London, Priv. print. by T. Poulter, 1889)

Glossary of supposed Americanisms by Alfred L. Elwyn (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1859)

Current Americanisms, a dictionary of words and phrases in common use, by T. Baron Russell (London, Howe, 1893).

A new dictionary of Americanisms; being a glossary of words supposed to be peculiar to the United States and the dominion of Canada, by Sylvia Clapin (New York, Louis Weiss & Co., 1902)

Slang and its analogues past and present, A dictionary, historical and comparative of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc. by John S. Farmer (London, Printed for subscribers only, 1890)

"English and American English" by Richard A. Proctor in The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 251 (F. Jeffries, 1881) -- reprinted in "ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH" by Richard A. Proctor in Appletons' journal, vol. 11 (Volume 11 (D. Appleton and Co., 1881)

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Notes:

[1] The first author John Farmer — Americanisms, old and new by John S. Farmer (London, Priv. print. by T. Poulter, 1889). The second is Maximilian Schele de Vere — Americanisms: the English of the New world by Maximilian Schele de Vere (C. Scribner & company, 1872).

[2] A new dictionary of Americanisms; being a glossary of words supposed to be peculiar to the United States and the dominion of Canada, by Sylva Clapin (New York, Louis Weiss & Co., 1902).

[3] First quote from same source; second from Dictionary of Americanisms, a glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States by John Russell Bartlett (Little, Brown and Co., 1889).

[4] Current Americanisms, a dictionary of words and phrases in common use, by T. Baron Russell (London, Howe, 1893).

[5] Slang and its analogues past and present, A dictionary, historical and comparative of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc. by John S. Farmer (London, Printed for subscribers only, 1890).

[6] "English and American English" by Richard A. Proctor in The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 251 (F. Jeffries, 1881). The OED does not support Proctor's etymology. It gives no connection with "wis"; asserts that the word probably comes from (or is at least related to) the Old Norse geta, to get, guess.

[7] Farmer, Slang and its analogues past and present