gunsel

See also: gunzel and Günsel

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌnsəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

gunsel (plural gunsels)

1. (slang, dated) Synonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, [p. http://books.google.com/books?id=1uVajyyVaVkC&pg=RA1-PA13 13]:

     The boy’s eyes […] ran over Spade’s body from shoulders to knees […]
     “Another thing,” Spade repeated, glaring at the boy: “Keep that gunsel away from me while you’re making up your mind. I’ll kill him […] ”

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

• See Thesaurus:male homosexual

Etymology 2

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

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.

   • 1944, Brett Halliday, Murder and the Married Virgin, →ISBN:

     The two gunsels waited for him on each side of the doorway, gun-hands bulging in their coat pockets.

References

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

• gunzel

Anagrams

• Leungs, lunges