I was intrigued by this use of 'gingerly' in a post on another board I frequent:

We are NOT butt-kissers nor any of the other names we have so gingerly been called recently.

To me, gingerly means 'very cautiously'. I vaguely recalled Quinion having discussed the word recently: http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-gin1.htm, and wondered whether it had also been discussed here. Although he doesn't discuss the meaning 'hot-tempered', which it seems to have above, his discussion does rule out the story of horses having ginger thrust up their rear ends.

Bingley

Bingley