Definitions
Etymologies
- From Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, "gosling"). (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps alteration (influenced by gun) of Yiddish gendzl, gosling, diminutive of gandz, goose, from Middle High German gans, from Old High German. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But he left the word gunsel because Hammett had used it so casually that Shaw took it for granted that the word pertained to a hired gunman.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“Perhaps the editor had never come upon the word gunsel before; perhaps it even flashed across his mind that no such word existed (it is not in desk dictionaries); in any event, it was perfectly natural for the editor, having caught and deleted the supposedly offensive phrase, to let gunsel slip past.”
“Nearly every detective story writer in the business has taken over the word gunsel and used it to mean a gunman.”
“David L. Gold Oakland Gardens, New York You mention [XVII,3] the word gunsel as being a less common, old-fashioned term for ` gunman, 'etc.”
“The first expression, however - gunsel - had a pure and untainted mien; further, the person called a gunsel happened to be, in fact, a gunman; so the editor assumed that gunsel was just a synonym for gunman.”
“Then on top of that dictionary definition, the word 'gunsel' suggested 'Hansel' to me, and the old folk tale mated with the definition and started spawning horrors.”
“The story began with the word 'gunsel', which I discovered in the dictionary.”
“It amuses me that "gunsel" is now used to mean "gun-wielding gangster" by people who clearly don't know its linguistic roots.”
Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #156 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“I wonder if this is in any way related to the word "gunsel", which one source defines as a Yiddish word for a catemite and which apparently was hobo slang for a kept boy at the time of the Great Depression.”
“gunsel' only took on its "tough-guy" connotation after Hammett put one over on his producers to slip it into the film of "The Maltese Falcom". before that its only meaning, from everything i've read, was the yiddish one, from 'ganzl'. that is, "kept boy/catamite/younger male lover/etc" - basically identical with the figure of the beloved boy in classical ghazals, muwashshahat, and other arabic and persian poetic forms.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gunsel’.
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Depraved and Insulting English
Vocabulary from Peter Novobatzky's and Ammon Shea's highly entertaining book of words I wish I could use in conversation.
ablutophobic, aboiement, abydocomist, acalculiac, achilous, acokoinonia, acrocephalic, acrotophiliac, acrotomophiliac, ameliotist, apotemnophiliac, monopediomaniac and 349 more...
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Asativum's Words
tatterdemalion, truthiness, eldritch, gemütlich, aa, pahoehoe, uffish, beamish, but, zymurgy, tarnation, malapropism and 59 more...
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hobohemia
community or life of hobos
wingding, moniker, mulligan, flophouse, gunsel, bazoo, bindle
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gunsel.
asativum I remember reading somewhere that the word primarily, or perhaps only, had meaning no. 1. Then Dashiell Hammett slipped it into one of his stories, knowing full well what it meant, but counting on readers (and editors/censors) to misinterpret as something along the lines of no. 2. Jan 18, 2008
victoriapl 1. a young man kept as a sexual companion.
2. a hoodlum armed with a handgun
"Another thing," Spade repeated, glaring ar the boy. "Keep that gunsel away from me while you're making up your mind. I'll kill him."
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Dec 2, 2007