It is often said that this funny term for trail mix is an acronym for good old raisins and peanuts. It is less commonly argued that it instead means granola, oats, raisins, and peanuts. This latter meaning appears ironic as granola typically contains oats. Also, I have never seen anyone put granola in their trail mix. I'll have to try that on my next hike.
Neither alleged definition of GORP (capitalized when used as an acronym) captures the true origin of the word. Instead, these are backronyms-- meanings that have been added after the word became popular to explain its origin. According to the Wikipedia article for "trail mix" a 1913 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary provides a definition for gorp of "to eat greedily". However, I cannot find the original 1913 edition anywhere to confirm. Also, the Oxford English Dictionary online article for gorp has no such reference and cites its first known use to 1970.
The word gorp is in fact much older than 1970, and so is the snack itself. A writer for the REI blog found examples of a similar snack going back to the 1830s.1 Some recipes for gorp from the late 1800s and early 1900s call for candy corn in place of chocolate. Gross!
Gorp has held different meanings in the past. An 1888 glossary of words used around Sheffield, England lists the word as a synonym for gape, yawn, or stare. The glossary spells the word as "g-a-u-p" but gives the pronunciation as "gorp". This may be an example of an intrusive R sound which can be common in some English dialects.2 Another England-based text from 1875 uses the term as a synonym for gape. This text spells the term phonetically "g-o-r-p". So, it seems this word had regional use in England in the late 1800s, but the spelling varied.3 Gorp was also a term for an unfledged baby bird in the late 19th and early 20th century. This makes sense as baby birds spend much of their time with mouth wide open awaiting food from their parents.4
So how did the term come to refer to trail mix? The origin of this definition is foggy. The earliest mention of gorp referring to trail mix is from 1958 in an article detailing a hike in Olympic National Park. The author gives the recipe which includes raisins, nuts, and M&Ms—the classic mix. This gives us a clue that the term may have originated in the Pacific Northwest.
Perhaps the most extensive research on this topic was done for a 1995 Backpacker magazine article. The author, Hannah Holmes, interviewed several linguists and food historians for the piece. The conclusion of her research was that the term arose in the 1960s as part of the health food craze. One of the experts interviewed was a spokesperson for Websters New World Dictionary who declared, "We claim its impossible to know where it comes from." referring to the origin of gorp as a synonym for trail mix. However, Holmes notes that this dictionary reports that gorp as a verb means "to eat greedily." Despite an extensive search at my local library of older dictionaries, I was unsuccessful at finding one listing this meaning for the word to corroborate these claims.6
If this was the case and gorp was used as a verb in the first half of the 20th century to refer to eating greedily, we can imagine a rational progression. First, gape changes to gorp via regional accents. This wide mouth facial expression would look similar to someone eating greedily with their mouth opening widely. So, the term becomes synonymous with eating quickly. One frequently eats trailside snacks greedily. So, the verb finally becomes a noun to refer to the otherwise nameless trail snack that is often eaten greedily.
Another article written by an etymologist confirms the likelihood of this hypothesis. He references several other dictionaries from the first half of the 20th century that purportedly give the definition of "gorp" as "to eat greedily". He also makes a connection to the older term gaup and similar sounding words like gawk and gawp that all indicated a wide-mouthed expression of surprise. He notes that this hypothesis is plausible but unproven with the current evidence.7 Whatever the case, we will all shamelessly continue to gorp our GORP like a little gorp.
By David F. Garner
Other Articles To Explore:
Sources
- Ashley Brown, "The Origins of GORP," March 9, 2020, REI, https://www.rei.com/blog/hike/the-origins-of-gorp.
- Sidney Oldall Addy, A glossary of words used in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. [With] A supplement, Volume 22, Issue 1, English Dialect Society, 1888, pg 86, accessed from https://books.google.com/books?id=IXoKAAAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%22gorp%22&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- E.H. Bickersteth, Evening hours, Volume 2, 1875, pg 562, accessed from https://books.google.com/books?id=eBoFAAAAQAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%22gorp%22&pg=PA562#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Sir Alfred Edward Pease, A Dictionary of the Dialect of the North Riding of Yorkshire, Horne & Son, Limited, 1928, pg 53, accessed from https://books.google.com/books?id=NPo3AQAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=dictionary%20gorp&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Grant Conway, "Hiking the Wild Olympic Shoreline," National Parks and Conservation Magazine 1959-01: Volume 33, Issue 136, pg 8, accessed from https://archive.org/details/sim_national-parks_1959-01_33_136/.
- Hannah Holmes, "The World According to GORP," Backpacker, Dec. 1995, pg 40, accessed from https://books.google.com/books?id=4d4DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA40&dq=origin%20of%20term%20gorp&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Michael Quinion, "Gorp," World Wide Words, April 9, 2005, https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-gor1.htm.