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 (1.1) (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.

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.

See also

• gunzel

Anagrams

• Leungs, lunges