gander

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gandre, also gander and ganer,^[2] inherited from Old English gandra, also ganra.^[3][4][5][6] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”).^[1] Its only close relatives are Dutch gander, Low German gander and Middle Low German ganre;^[3][7][8] the other Germanic languages made the masculine differently, as in German Gänserich and Old Norse gassi.^[3][5] The OED takes the original stem to be perhaps Proto-Germanic *ganron-, with the d inserted between n and r as in thunder,^[3][9] and Barnhart notes that if ganra is the older form it may be related to gannet.^[10] Most dictionaries connect it with goose,^{[11][12][8][13]} but the OED doubts it: the word may share a root with Lithuanian gandras (“stork”), Old English ganot (“gannet”) and Old High German ganazzo (“gander”), and with Latin ganta, which Pliny gives as the German name of a small white goose, the source of Old French gante (“wild goose”); it may once have named another water bird and been linked to the goose only through the phrase "goose and gander".^[3][12] The slang verb "to look" and the noun "a look" come from the bird, from the picture of someone craning the neck like a gander.^{[8][10][12][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The male goose: about 1000, in Ælfric's Latin grammar, where gandra glosses Latin anser.^[3][10][5] In Middle English it is recorded before 1250, in the Bestiary.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the bird's name was also used of a dull or foolish person, a simpleton.^[3][4][8] The proverb "what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" pairs it with goose,^[4][1] and Johnson (1755) quotes "As deep drinketh the goose as the gander" from Camden.^[14] In 19th-century slang a gander was a married man, in America especially one living apart from his wife, a grass widower;^[3][15] Etymonline adds that it was used of single men and of men-only gatherings, compare stag.^[12] A verb gander, to wander aimlessly or foolishly like a gander, is recorded from the late 17th century and survives in dialect and American use;^[3][4][8] in 1858 it also meant to ramble in talk.^[3] The sense "to look, to stare" is American slang of the turn of the 20th century: Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it in 1903, glossed "to stretch or rubber your neck",^[15][10] and Etymonline dates it to 1886.^[12] The noun "a look" followed, recorded in 1914 in a vocabulary of criminal slang,^{[3][15][10][8]} and Etymonline dates it to 1912.^[12] It is now used mainly in take or have a gander.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – the male goose, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[3][10]
• 1509 – in phrases and proverbs.^[3]
• 1553 – a dull or stupid person, a simpleton.^[3][4]
• 1688 – verb, to wander aimlessly or foolishly (dialect).^[3][4]
• 1859 – a married man living away from his wife (American slang).^[15]
• 1903 – verb, to look, crane the neck (American slang).^[15][10]
• 1914 – a look or glance.^[3][15][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An adult male goose.^[8][16][3]
2. (informal) A quick look; usually in take a gander or have a gander: Have a gander at this old map.^[16][8][3]
3. (informal) A foolish or stupid person; a simpleton.^[8][16][3]

Verb

1. (slang) To look or glance at something.^[3][4]
2. (dialect) To wander or stroll about aimlessly.^[8][4][3]

Word family

• goosander
• Michigander

Related words

• goose
• gannet

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins