on the queston of American spelling why do Americans call a group of male and femals GUY'S?

Question

i always thought the word GUY'S meant the male of the human species

Answer 1

That was my idea as well, it does not make any sense. But in this country many things don't make sense

Answer 2

It has slowly evolved from being used only for males, as in the title "Guys and Dolls", to a unisex global appellation for a mixed group. As a result it is also now used by extension to groups of females only.

Answer 3

The term "you guys" is often used as a second-person plural pronoun in English. This is true in my dialect, for example. It helps to clear up confusion about whether you are talking to just one person or a group of people, since Standard American English uses "you" in both of these situations. Many dialects of English have different second-person plural pronouns, such as "y'all", "yous", and "youns".

Answer 4

Guys & Bombs.

Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of "guy"? -- Sheryl Stark, via the internet.

Now here's an interesting question, and one with a special resonance for me (aside from the fact that I am quite a guy myself, of course). Way back in my eighth grade English class, our teacher, annoyed at our constant vague references to "this guy" and "that other guy," announced that if any of us knew the true meaning of "guy," we'd never use the word. We all, of course, immediately decided that there must be some secret salacious meaning to the word, and spent the rest of the term snickering at every "guy" we heard.

What our teacher meant, however, was that although Americans use "guy" to mean just "fellow" or "chap," to call someone a "guy" in Britain was, at one point, equivalent to labeling him "grotesque" or "weird-looking." And we had no idea that "guy" was an eponym, a word formed from the name of a real person.

The person in the case of "guy" was the infamous Guy Fawkes, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Fawkes and his co-conspirators concealed 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords, their goal being to blow King James I and the entire Parliament skyward. The plot was foiled, Fawkes and most of his pals were captured and executed, and November 5, the day of the planned Big Boom, became known as Guy Fawkes Day in England.

Guy Fawkes Day eventually became the British equivalent of the American Halloween, with effigies of Fawkes being burned in the streets or carried door to door by children begging for pennies. These grotesque effigies became known as "guys," and by 1836, "guy" was being used in Britain as slang for anyone exhibiting bizarre dress or behavior.

In America, however, the story of the Gunpowder Plot was not well known, and by the mid-19th century we were using the British "guy" to simply mean "a man." By the early 20th century, our "regular fellow" usage had percolated back to Britain, and "guy" no longer means "weirdo" in the U.K.

Answer 5

In some other languages they have a unique form for words that is neither male nor female, i.e. the neuter form. In English, US or British, the masculine form is the neuter form.

Answer 6

This is slang, now accepted universally, as in "Hey, you guys!" to a group of mixed sexes!
It is kind of irritating, but is very much used in USA.
As in most slang, it comes from sheer laziness, i.e. not having to say "Boys & Girls!"

Answer 7

Because they are all faggots at heart