See also: gunzel and Günsel

English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡʌnsəl/
  • (file)

Etymology 1 edit

From Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, gosling), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (goose).

Noun edit

gunsel (plural gunsels)

  1. (slang, dated) Synonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
  2. (slang, dated) Synonym of bottom: a passive partner in a male homosexual relationship.
  3. (prison slang, dated) Synonym of bitch: a man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship.
Synonyms edit

Etymology 2 edit

By misunderstanding of the 1929 Maltese Falcon quotation above (which survived in a popular 1941 film adaptation). The novel was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word gunsel knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to gun, and therefore allow it.[1][2]

Noun edit

gunsel (plural gunsels)

  1. A gun-carrying hoodlum or other criminal.
    • 1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN:
      There's somebody comin. I think it's that gunsel.

References edit

  1. ^ William Safire, “Dirigiste” (On Language column, 2000 April 30), in The New York Times; relevant portion also in The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time, Simon and Schuster (2004), →ISBN, page 35.
  2. ^ Michael Quinion, “Gunsel” (World Wide Words piece, 2006 August 12).

See also edit

Anagrams edit