On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Bob Newman wrote:

> Well, I've been here about a week and had planned to mill, er, linger
> quietly in the background as a vagrant lurker, but I am compelled to
> comment.
> 
> Or rather, question.  I've been pondering the meaning of "Galoot"
> since joining the list, and finally even discovered an FAQ that 
> identified the term as originating with a gang of five obsessing 
> over a saw-set.  Is "galoot" really *not* an acronym?  Surely the
> final "ot" stands for "old tools."  I'm hard pressed to figure out
> the leading "galo," though the leading "g" might stand for gentlemen,
> grouches, grumps, gougers, geezers, etc., or maybe even "galoots".  
> Somebody help me out here.
> 

There was some hare-brained tale earlier on this list tracing its
origins to a specific event in the Scottish highlands in the
early part of the 19th century a while back. 

An alternative account is that if you spell it backwards, you get
"TOOLAG"; take away the obvious part and you get AG, presumably
short for "acquirer grandissimo".

		-- werdnA