"rope, chain, wire," mid-14c., "leader," from Old French guie "a guide," from guier (see guide (v.)); or from a similar word in North Sea Germanic. The "rope" sense is nautical, first recorded 1620s.
"fellow," 1847, originally American English; earlier (1836) "grotesquely or poorly dressed person," originally (1806) "effigy of Guy Fawkes," leader of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up British king and Parliament (Nov. 5, 1605), paraded through the streets by children on the anniversary of the conspiracy. The male proper name is from French, related to Italian Guido.
To mock; ridicule (1869+)
Related Termsfall guy, jigger-man, one of the boys, regular fellow, smart guy, tough guy, wise guy
[ultimately fr the name and reputation of Guy Fawkes, and esp of his ugly effigies burnt in England on November 5 to commemorate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot, his plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament]