This essentially what the various emacs version control interfaces give you (e.g., psvn for svn, vc for generic any-vcs support, or magit for git), but right there on the command-line. Very cool.
Yeah, magit really is incredibly quick and convenient. I often go so far as to have an emacs session open "on the side" just for magit, even if I'm using some sort of IDE.
I'd even go so far as to say that it might even be worth learning (just enough) emacs for!
It would be incredible to have something with magit-like efficiency that could start up in an instant (unlike emacs). I'm aware of "tig", but it seems rather limited, unfortunately.
It seems a pretty obvious portmanteau of magic + git. I always said it with a different rhythm: "ma-git" rather than "mag-it", so that might also be a factor.
I always pronounced the G softly as in 'magic' so it took a while for the criticism to register. Gonna be honest, I like magit with a hard G, maggots 'n all.