Etymologically
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goose

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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

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