I noticed the phrase “What gives?” in the following lines of the article of Washington Post (August 29) article, titled “Is Ron Paul being ignored?”

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> “And yet talk to almost anyone in politics — Republicans or Democrats — and the idea of Ron Paul as a top-tier candidate for president is greeted with either a laugh or an eye roll (or both.)
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> *What gives?*
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> Paul appears to be suffering from the “once bitten, twice shy” tendency of the media.”
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It appears to me “What gives?” is a common and frequently-used phrase, but I don’t think I’ve seen this phrase so often in written English format like newspaper articles, much less in English textbooks we use.
Does it mean “for what (reason)?” or "What is its implication?" What is the spelt-out format of “What gives?”
['https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39947', 'https://english.stackexchange.com', 'https://english.stackexchange.com/users/3119/']
I've been living in Germany for 17 years, and this morning the similarity of the phrase "What gives?" to the German "Was gibt's?" occurred to me, so I checked the net ...

The article ["What Gives with What Gives?"](http://babel.ucsc.edu/Jorge/joseph.html) by Brian Joseph of Ohio State University - also cited above - seems to provide a well founded discussion of the syntax and origin of the phrase in American English. Joseph argues, however, that the German may not be suitable as the origin of the phrase: 

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> … there is no German expression that is simply *was gibt!* Rather, colloquial German has *was gibt es?* 'What is the matter? What's up?', but this is not a suitable source for *what gives* since the putative calquing did not lead to a direct counterpart to the German subject pronoun es (thus, *what gives*, not \**what gives it* or \**what does it give*).
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For all us non-linguists out there, Wikipedia says:

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> In linguistics, a calque (/ˈkælk/) or loan translation is a word or
>  phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word
>  (Latin: verbum pro verbo) or root-for-root translation.
> 
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> 

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I believe, however, that his dismissal of the German as a source is flawed, because Joseph is principally arguing from a syntax-of-language standpoint and thus comparing the (written) WORDS instead of the SPOKEN language.

Clearly in a comparison of the SYNTAX of "Was - gibt - es ?" with the English "What - gives ?" the word "it" (="es") is missing in the English. However, back then even more so than today, language is primarily a SPOKEN organism! - and a comparison of the SPOKEN phrases provides a very solid argument for its origin from the German:

In the spoken German phrase "Was gibt es?" the second and third word are slurred together (at least, based on modern-day speech), so that only the "s" of "es" is pronounced (sorry, phonetics here are my best guess):

/vasɡiːpts/ and /vasɡɪpts/ (normally written out with an apostrophe: "Was gibt's")

In comparison to the English "What gives?", we can see (or rather hear) that the transition from the German to English comprises the translation of "Was" to "what" and the minimal change in the consonant sounds /pts/ to /vz/.

The final /s/ in the German becomes the third person inflection "(it) give*s*" in the English. In other words the word "it" IS implicitly present in the English, but as an inflection of the verb instead of as an extra word.

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Wikipedia to the rescue again! Wikipedia explains that:

> 
> Calquing is distinct from phono-semantic matching.[3] While calquing
>  includes semantic translation, it does not consist of phonetic
>  matching (i.e. retaining the approximate sound of the borrowed word
>  through matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existent word or
>  morpheme in the target language).
> 
> 
> 

and

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> Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root.
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So, to summarize:

I argue that the phrase "what gives?" likely originates from the German "Was gibt's?", and transitioned to English primarily due to the phono-semantic match of the two phrases, and that the transition can be described as a calque in so far as the "it" is implied in the presence of the third person singular inflection /s/.

I would be gratified if a linguist would take my argument further, and reiterate it using the correct phonetics.

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Leo Rosten, *The Joys of Yinglish* (1989) claims "What gives" as a characteristic element of what he calls "Yinglish" (hybridized English/Yiddish or Yiddish-inflected English):

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> **What gives?**
> 
> 
> This is a stellar addition to the colloquial phrases of conversational Yinglish. From Yiddish: *Vi geyt's*?" "How goes it?" Via German: *Was gibt*?
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> 1. What's going on there?
> 2. What's new?
> 3. What's the matter? What's wrong?
> 4. Tell me the whole story.
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> 

As the multiple definitions in Rosten's account indicate, people use "What gives?" can be used in a number of distinct senses. But the most common ones in my experience are "What's going on?" (asked curiously or querulously) and "What's wrong?" (asked sympathetically).

According to Christine Ammer, *The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms* (1997), "what gives" can also mean "how are you":

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> The last variant [of "what's cooking"], **what gives**, may derive from the German equivalent, *Was gibt's?* Slang from about 1940, it is also used to mean, "how are you," as in *Hello, Jack—what gives?*
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As simchona's answer indicates, Harold Wentworth & Stuart Flexner have a detailed entry for "What gives?" in *Dictionary of American Slang*, first edition (1960):

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> **What gives?** **1** A common greeting. **2** "What's happening?" "What did I do to make you say or do that?" [Cross reference omitted.] 3 = **What's new?** *Perhaps a lit. translation of the Ger. "was ist los?"* **1939:** "What gives, I asked her...." O'Hara, *Pal Joey*, 43. **1949:** "What gives?' he croaked in an annoyed tone." Chandler, *Little Sister*, 21.
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The instance from John O'Hara's *Pal Joey* appeared under the title "[Joey and the Calcutta Club](https://books.google.com/books?id=BzYdAQAAMAAJ&q=%22what+gives,+I+asked+her%22&dq=%22what+gives,+I+asked+her%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPlPHy2tDOAhVI9WMKHRMAC4gQ6AEIUjAJ)" in *The New Yorker* (March 30, 1940) [combined snippets]:

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> So Quinn asked me to join them and I did and this mouse with them named Jean Benedict looks like 10000 other dames on the line of some Bway show except when she opens her trap she has an accent that is so British even Sir Nevile Chamberlin would not be able to understand her. I knew she was strictly U.S.A. by appearance but the accent is so good I think what is the angle. **What gives**, I asked her, altho not in so many words. I inquired how she happen to have the accent and she said a lot of people inquire of her the same thing and it is easily explained. She is half American and her father is British.
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And from Raymond Chandler's [*The Little Sister*](https://books.google.com/books?id=YaaU052RltUC&pg=PA244&dq=%22what+gives?+he+croaked%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0woKr3dDOAhVW92MKHaPADcQQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22what%20gives%3F%20he%20croaked%22&f=false) (1949):

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> He made a grab for the glass [of gin, freshly poured by Marlowe]. I put it on the table in front of him. He grasped it carefully in both hands and poured the gin into his face. Then he laughed heartily and threw the glass at me. I managed to catch it and up-end it on the table again. The man looked me over with a studied but unsuccessful attempt at sternness. 
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> 
> "**What gives**?" he croaked in an annoyed tone. 
> 
> 
> "Manager?" 
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> He nodded and almost fell off the couch. "Must be I'm drunky," he said. "Kind of a bit of a little bit drunky."
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> 
> "You're not bad," I said. "You're still breathing."
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Somewhat surprisingly, the earliest match that a separate Google Books search finds for the expression is from Elizabeth Kata, [*Be Ready with Bells & Drums*](https://books.google.com/books?id=lAAfAAAAMAAJ&q=%22what+gives%22&dq=%22what+gives%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7i6uA4NDOAhUU22MKHRTQDmo4ChDoAQgiMAI) (1961):

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> "Is that you. Paul?" Gordon asked.
> 
> 
> 'But of course. Excuse me for asking, Dad, but **what gives**? **What gives** out there with Orphan Annie, with little Eva. With your—friend—so I'm told. You care to tell me **what gives**, Dad? Honoured older brother, you mind telling me about this friend of yours?'
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> 
> ...
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> 'It's nice to know you care. I'm glad you love me, Dad.' I heard them laughing together. It was fine to hear brothers laughing together. Paul went on speaking. 
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> 'You're evading the issue—I don't like any issue being evaded. **What gives** with li'l Eva? Who, what, when, where, and for Pete's sake, why? Why?'
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In this dialogue, "Dad" appears to be beatnik talk for "friend" or "pal." Kata was an Australian novelist, not an American; but the usage of "what gives" in this excerpt mirrors U.S. usage.