Ganzie

[treacle07]

I have a friend who comes from the Potteries (Stoke-On-Trent) who uses the word Ganzie to mean cardigan. Does anyone else use this and where are they from?
thank you!

[dogfish]

I've often heard it used in the North East of Scotland ( Doric), meaning a jumper.

[Quizmonster]

Ganzie - perhaps more easily recognisable with its alternative spelling of 'gansey' - is just a dialect variation of 'Guernsey', the Channel Island's name. It generally refers to a 'jersey' - note the name of the neighbouring island. Presumably, therefore, both these garments originated in that area.

[Aquagility]

A gansey ( also known as a guernsey, knit-frock or frock shirt) is a traditional working sweater for fishermen all along the various coastlines of the U.K. that are peculiar to their specific area i.e. a Scottish, Cornish, Yorkshire gansey are all different.

[dogfish]

Apparently these "ganzies" were also made in patterns particular to individual families, so as to aid in identification of the recovered bodies of fishermen lost at sea.

[cathtimbob]

Yes Ganzy was a popular word when i was young, I was born in 1948 and it referred to my jumper.

[cathtimbob]

Ganzy was a popular word when I was a kid and it was referred to as a Jumper or Pullover.I was born in 1948. I can hear my mother shouting "Get your ganzy on"
.

[Burslemladyj]

My husband uses this word when he is looking for a jumper/ cardigan and he comes from Newcastle under Lyme. Staffs.

[tomasdore]

The Gaelic Irish word for jumper or sweater is geansaí, with the pronunciation being identical to ganzie in English, so I would judge this spelling derives from writing Irish in English phonetics. But the trail doesn't stop there: "The word used in Irish is geansaí, a Gaelicisation of guernsey which has been re-Anglicised to gansey in Hiberno-English." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_jumper
So the earlier answer from Quizmonster is clearly correct in tying its origins to the Channel Islands.
But it would be 're-exported' to English anywhere that Gaelic speakers were present - or had been been, earlier - in any numbers. That would cover many parts of Britain.