goose

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡuːs/ (UK); /ɡus/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English goos, inherited from Old English gōs (plural gēs),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *gans-,^[5][6][3] cognate with Old Frisian gōs, Dutch gans, Old High German gans, German Gans and Old Norse gás.^[5][3][4] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns, the source of Latin ānser, Ancient Greek χήν (khḗn), Sanskrit हंस (haṃsá, “goose, swan”), Lithuanian žąsìs, Russian гусь (gusʹ) and Old Irish géis (“swan”),^[5][6][3][7] probably imitative of the bird's honking.^[6][7] The n was lost before s as in tooth,^[6][5] and the plural geese shows i-mutation.^[6][5] A link with gander and gannet is possible but debated.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bird: the OED's first example is from Old English Riddle 24;^[3] Barnhart dates gōs to about 700.^[5] The female goose specifically, as against the gander, is recorded from about 1220.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The bird's supposed stupidity gave the sense "simpleton, fool" in 1547,^[3][8] and Johnson defined it as a large waterfowl "proverbially noted, I know not why, for foolishness".^[9][6] The flesh as food is from 1539,^[3][8] and a tailor's smoothing-iron from 1606, with the plural gooses.^[3][8] The goose's hiss gave theatre slang to get the goose, to be hissed, from 1805.^[3][10] The verb "to poke between the buttocks", from about 1880, is probably from a fancied likeness of an upturned thumb to a goose's neck,^[11][6] and it also came to mean to feed fuel to an engine in spurts, and to spur on or boost.^[11]

Timeline

• Old English – the bird.^[3][8]
• c. 1220 – the female bird.^[3]
• 1539 – the flesh as food.^[3][8]
• 1547 – a foolish person.^[3][8]
• 1597 – the board game of goose.^[3][8]
• 1606 – a tailor's smoothing-iron.^[3][8]
• c. 1880 – the verb, to poke from behind.^[11][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large web-footed waterfowl of the family Anatidae, bigger than a duck, with a long neck; especially the female, the male being a gander.
2. The flesh of this bird as food.
3. (informal) A silly person.
4. A tailor's smoothing iron (plural gooses).

Verb

1. (slang) To poke someone between the buttocks.
2. (informal) To prod into action, or to increase the speed or output of.

Word family

• gooselike

Related words

• gosling
• goshawk
• gossamer
• anserine

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster