goboon

English

Alternative forms

• gaboon

Etymology

From gob (“saliva”) +‎ -oon.

Noun

goboon (plural goboons)

1. (colloquial) A receptacle for spit; a spittoon, a spitbox; a spit bucket.
   • 1923, Lucky Bag (U.S. Naval Academy yearbook) for 1923, entry for "Dwight Harvey Day", p. 75:

     He came into the limelight during segregation when a falling goboon brought with it a shower of something else and he earned the name of Reiny and a black N five stars.

   • 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:

     [About Antek's bar:] Neither bright neon nor a soft fluorescence lighted either his ceiling or his walls; but there was plenty of butchershop sawdust along the floor and an old-fashioned golden goboon for every four bar stools.

   • 1952 July 14, “The Congress: Hidden Shoals”, in Time, volume LX, number 2:

     In the House chamber, weary Speaker Sam Rayburn, pausing only to spit with experienced accuracy into his goboon, cleared hundreds of routine bills with incessant repetition of the magic words: "Without objection, so ordered."

References

• "goboon" & "gaboon", Merriam-Webster.com

Anagrams

• ogbono