Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A terminal element in some compounds of Greek origin, meaning ‘generation,’ ‘production,’ as in cosmogony, theogony, etc.
- noun A stupid person; a goose.
- noun The black-footed albatross, Diomedea nigripes.
- noun The young of the short-tailed albatross, Dutch brachyura.
- noun Probably, some other very large dark pelagic bird, as the giant fulmar, Ossifraga gigantea: a name in use among sailors in the northern Pacific.
- noun The name seems to have been applied originally to southern albatrosses of medium size, with white bodies and black wings, such as Diomedea chlororhyncha. It was thus used by ‘deep-water’ sailors about 1860, and its application to the black-footed albatross, D. nigripes, of the North Pacific is of later date.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The first use of "gony" in print in English with the meaning of "simpleton" is from 1580 probably derived from the Scandinavian "gonyel" for "a stupid fellow"--which, of course, would also make it etymologically related to the Yiddish and German words.
Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #156 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources 2008
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Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn.
The Piazza Tales Herman Melville 1855
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"Ye-ye-ye mean tae tell me he's gony staun up in public an shout an 'shoogle his boady aboot like that?" he cried.
icAyrshire 2010
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"Ye-ye-ye mean tae tell me he's gony staun up in public an shout an 'shoogle his boady aboot like that?" he cried.
icAyrshire 2010
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He warned that if action on Alexandra was not be taken by the gony Alexandras "to follow.
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TOkony mandeha mitazona angadin ` omby kely aloha ireo mpitondra fanjakana sy mpanohitra ireo mba ahatsapana hoe mafy ny miasa mamelotena sy mitady ny ho anina isan ` andro, ario ny akanjo mianjaika be ireny dia mba miloloava vary amin ` ny gony hatero ho an ` ny traboina. "
Global Voices Online 2009
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TOkony mandeha mitazona angadin ` omby kely aloha ireo mpitondra fanjakana sy mpanohitra ireo mba ahatsapana hoe mafy ny miasa mamelotena sy mitady ny ho anina isan ` andro, ario ny akanjo mianjaika be ireny dia mba miloloava vary amin ` ny gony hatero ho an ` ny traboina. "
Global Voices Online 2009
yarb commented on the word gony
"Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray albatross, anomalously so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes of Hope and Horn."
- Melville, The Encantadas, Sketch Third
September 20, 2011