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goody

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Etymology and origin of the English word goody

Pronunciation

goody1 goodwife, woman of humble station

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1559 will of John Eltoftes
Ultimate origin
English goodwife

Etymology

The word for a woman of humble station is from English a reduced form of goodwife,[2][3][4][5][6][7] the ending probably being assimilated to the suffix -y, as in hussy from housewife.[2][8][9][7] Johnson took it as corrupted from the phrase good wife.[10] Goodwife itself is formed from good and wife, and is recorded from the early 14th century for the mistress of a household.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A title of courtesy put before the surname of a woman, usually a married woman of humble standing: 1559, in the will of John Eltoftes.[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to the 1550s,[3] and Barnhart to 1559.[4]

Semantic evolution

The title was the counterpart of goodman, and it was used much as auntie or mother were, in speaking to or of a social inferior.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as a low term of civility.[10] From before 1680 it could also mean a woman entitled to the title; from 1707 it was also used alone, without a name, as a polite form of address; both uses are now rare, archaic or historical.[2] In 1582 Stanyhurst used it of a man, as if it were a reduced form of goodman, a use that did not last.[2] At Harvard University, from 1819, a goody was a woman who cleaned and looked after the students' rooms.[2][5][8] The name Goody Two-Shoes comes from the heroine of a children's story of the 1760s who rejoiced at getting a second shoe.[3] In 19th-century Scots and English dialect the word was still a familiar name for an old woman.[11]

Timeline

  • 1559 – a title of courtesy before the name of a woman of humble station.[2][5][4]
  • before 1680 – a woman to whom this title belongs; a goodwife.[2]
  • 1707 – a polite form of address used without a name.[2]
  • 1819 – at Harvard, a woman who cleans students' rooms.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A woman, usually married, of humble social rank, the word often used as a title before her surname: Goody Hart.[5][2][8]
  2. (archaic) At Harvard University, a woman who cleaned and looked after students' rooms.[5][2][8]

goody2 something nice to eat

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1745 Swift, Directions to Servants
Ultimate origins
Proto-Germanic *gōdazOld English -ig
Etymology tree of goody2
inherited borrowed derived
English good
English goody

Etymology

The word for something nice to eat is formed from English good + -y,[2][3][4][5][8][6][12] a pet form of the adjective,[13] with the noun suffix.[2][5] The exclamation and the adjective meaning affectedly good are formed in the same way from good,[2][5][8] the adjective partly with the adjective suffix -y.[2][4] Partridge thought the form perhaps influenced by goodly,[13] and Weekley compared French bonbon, a word from children's language.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something particularly tasty to eat, especially a sweet: 1745, in Swift's Directions to Servants.[2][4][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1756 for this sense.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a name for a sweet or a tasty morsel, usually in the plural, and in northern English dialect goody was confectionery in general from 1853.[2] In the 20th century the plural widened to anything attractive or desirable (1916), to the extras offered with a product such as a car (1954), and, in American slang, to the sexually desirable parts of the body (1957).[2] The adjective meaning sentimentally or affectedly good is recorded from 1808,[2][5] or from 1830 in Barnhart and Etymonline,[4][3] and its reduplicated form goody-goody from 1865 or 1871.[3][4] As a noun for a person who is careful always to behave well, goody is recorded from 1816, and in American English from 1934 for the hero of a story or film, the opposite of a baddie.[2][8] As a child's cry of delight it dates from 1796,[2][3][5] and goody gumdrops is first recorded in the United States in 1930.[2] The OED also records an obsolete adjective goody, meaning goodly, from 1597 to 1813.[2]

Timeline

  • 1745 – something especially tasty to eat; a sweet.[2][4]
  • 1796 – an exclamation of childish delight.[2][5]
  • 1808 – adjective, affectedly or sentimentally virtuous.[2][5]
  • 1816 – noun, a person who always behaves well; a goody-goody.[2]
  • 1853 – in northern English dialect, sweets, confectionery.[2]
  • 1867 – adverb, in an affectedly virtuous way, chiefly in to talk goody.[2]
  • 1916 – anything attractive or desirable to have.[2]
  • 1934 – a good character in a story or film, the hero.[2]
  • 1954 – an extra feature offered with a product.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Something especially pleasant to eat, such as a sweet or a cake; usually in the plural: a bag of goodies from the bakery.[5][14][2]
  2. Anything particularly attractive or desirable to have; usually in the plural.[5][14][2]
  3. (informal) The hero or a good character in a film or book, as opposed to a baddie.[14][2][8]
  4. A goody-goody.[14][8]

Adjective

  1. Affectedly or smugly virtuous; goody-goody.[5][2]

Interjection

  1. A child's cry of delight or approval: Goody, we're going to the beach![14][5][2]

Word family

  • goodiness
  • goody-goody

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Goody.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/goody. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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