goon

See also go on

English

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -uːn

Etymology 1

Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony ("simpleton", c.1580), of unknown origin. Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (c.1839). Goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (c.1921).

The meaning of "hired thug" (c.1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series.
The "fool" sense was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.

Noun

goon (plural goons)

A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence (also known as a 'hired goon').
A fool; someone considered silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish.
(ice hockey, pejorative) An enforcer or fighter.

Derived terms

Translations

a thug

Finnish: korsto (fi)
Portuguese: brutamontes (pt) m

Russian: головорез (ru) (golovoréz) m

a fool

Finnish: hölmö (fi), typerys (fi)
Portuguese: bobo (pt) m

Romanian: papagal (ro) m
Russian: жлоб (ru) (žlob) m

Etymology 2

Diminutive slang for flagon.

Noun

goon (uncountable)

(Australia, countable, informal) A wine flagon or cask.
- 2009, Stephen Cummings, Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?: Misadventures in Music, page 11,
  We drank goons of cheap wine.
(Australia, uncountable, informal) Cheap or inferior cask wine.
- 2010, Patrick Holland, The Mary Smokes Boys, unnumbered page,
  ‘On the night of our school graduation he stole a flagon of goon wine and disappeared into the woods. The police found him the next day asleep on the creek. […] ’
- 2010, Jason Leung, This All Encompassing Trip: Chasing Pearl Jam Around the World, page 384,
  With these instructions, we take turns sipping the wine directly from the bottle on the beach. It′s not the classiest thing to do but the fact that it′s in a bottle already makes it classier than all the boxes of goon we′ve consumed this trip.
- 2011, E.C. McSween, et al., Boganomics: The Science of Things Bogans Like, unnumbered page,
  Red wine was consumed largely by posh folk, white wine meant goon, mention of a Jägerbomb would have sent its father ducking for cover, and ‘sex on the beach’ meant just that.