What's the origin of the word “geezer”?

Question

From Oxford Dictionaries:

geezer noun
1. a man _{(British informal)}
he strikes me as a decent geezer
2. an old man _{(North American informal , derogatory)}

I think in British English the word has connotations beyond meaning simply man.

Etymonline raises more questions than it answers:

geezer
1885, variant of obsolete Cockney guiser "mummer" (late 15c.; see guise).

Answer 1

I believe that "geezer" usage changed a lot over time.

It wasn't about age but oddness. Nowadays, in popular usage it is used to show an old person whose behavior is regarded as either eccentric or “elderly.” I'm not sure whether it has more positive connotations or negative but it had negative connotation in the past, meaning "an eccentric, unpleasant man".

And about its origin:

Originally, a geezer seems to have been ‘someone who went around in disguise’. The word probably represents a dialectal pronunciation of the now obsolete guiser ‘someone wearing a masquerade as part of a performance, mummer’. This was a derivative of guise (13th c.), which, together with disguise (14th c.), goes back ultimately to prehistoric Germanic *wīsōn, ancestor of archaic English wise ‘manner’.

There is also this link and this.

Answer 2

"Geezer" actually means an odd or eccentric man.

This word came from guise, which was:

(in Scotland and N England) the practice or custom of disguising oneself in fancy dress, often with a mask, and visiting people's houses, esp at Halloween

The above is the origin of guiser.

Thus, it was used in slang to describe someone as odd, and it was pronounced "geezer" due to as you said, the Cockney accent.

However, in recent times, meaning may have changed, so that "geezer" no longer refers to someone weird, but anyone really.

Answer 3

Here in the USA, I always hear it used to mean really old (and acting it). I've started hearing "geeze" applied to old men (always men) as a verb too. Perhaps it is just my family that does that, but generally when I think that, it turns out to not be the case.

Answer 4

I looked in 19th century slang dictionaries, and found different origins from those in other answers.

This entry, published 1890 in 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.

GEEZER, subs. (popular). — An appellation, sometimes, but not necessarily, of derision and contempt; applied to both sexes, but generally to women. Usually, OLD GEEZER. For synonym, see WITCH.

I also found this entry, published 1889, in A dictionary of slang, jargon & cant, embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian slang, pidgin English, tinker's jargon, and other irregular phraseology

Geezer (popular), wife, old woman. Dutch slang, geeze or geese, a girl, a mistress, vide GANDER. Also a man derisively.

He'd flirt and boat, but never wrote A note to his old geezer. — J.F. Mitchell: Jimmy Johnson's Holiday.

So those sources seem to indicate that the word originally came from Dutch slang for a mistress, and started to be applied to the wife and other old women, and was derisively applied to men.

Answer 5

I always thought it comes from the word for man in Basque, which is gezona. The Basque sailors used to call the English counterparts eh gezona! and it entered local slang. However, they changed it slightly to make sound more English.