Subject: [Fictionary] Gunzel Results

From: Nicolas Ward <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2022 10:33:49 -0700

Here are the belated gunzel results. I don't know what happened to the
last month! :o( Apologies as well to Ranjit for missed including his
def in the original ballot; it is included here.

Fran 9
J-J 4
Eric 3
Joshua 3
Ziv 0+1
Pierre 1
Hutch 0

Fran cleaned up with her tool holder fictionition, so the next round is yours!

It seems I also missed (due to s vs. z and not reading the linked
Wikipedia citation) an alternate dictionary definition that Hutch
knew, but as that didn't affect the results, I think we're okay? (And
thank you Elliott for the full etymology... pretty wild!)

----

Ranjit

gunzel, n. Body glitter used by competition bodybuilders

----

Pierre

Fran 1

gunzel, n. Also gungel. A plant, Ardissa malundrum, in the umbellifer family,
native to northern England and Scotland.

Elliott: Too sensible

----

Eric

Ziv 2
Joshua 1

gunzel, n. A man who is inordinately attracted to women; a ladies'
man; a womanizer.

Elliott: Sounds vaguely Shakespearean. "Get thee to a nunnery, thou
impudent gunzel!"

----

J-J

Ranjit 1
Elliott 2
Pierre 1

gunzel, v. To misuse a corkscrew.

Ziv: Oh my...

Elliott: Sounds very plausible, but I think if it were a real
dictionary entry, they would have said whether it was transitive or
intransitive.

----

Fran

Ranjit 2
Joshua 2
Elliott 1
Hutch 2
Pierre 2

gunzel, n. A flexible holder shaped like two curved fingers with a
space between them, designed to grip the handle of a tool such as a
broom or rake and hold it vertically.

Ranjit: I used to have a guitar gunzel!

Elliott: I've seen things like this, and I can imagine their ancestors
being used to hold guns, so sure, one point.

Nick: Then we have a pair of ukulele gunzels!

----

Nick/Dictionary

Train Wikipedia dive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfan#Other_names

Ziv 1

gunzel, n. A train enthusiast; a railfan.

Ziv: One point for delight

Eric: I need to recuse myself, because just this moment, while reading
about  the etymology of "gunsel" I inadvertently learnt about gunzels!
I am so sad. And I never would have pegged that as the true
definition.

Elliott: In case you don't have access to it, the Oxford English
Dictionary says: Apparently a borrowing from Yiddish. Etymon: Yiddish
gendzl. Etymology: < Yiddish gendzl boy, youth, extended use of gendzl
gosling < Middle High German genselīn gosling, (in extended use)
conceited or silly girl (German Gänslein ; < gans goose n. + -līn,
suffix forming diminutives). Specific use denoting a sexual partner is
not recorded in dictionaries of either Yiddish or German, and probably
developed within English. Sense 2 reflects a misapprehension of the
use by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Maltese Falcon (1929).
Hammett found gunsel in a dictionary, where it was euphemistically
glossed as ‘a boy hired for immoral purposes’, and decided to use it
in a context where the meaning was not clear (see quot. 1929 at sense
1), in order to play a prank on the prudish editor of his novel.
Subsequent authors associated gunsel with gun n. and began to use it
in an assumed sense ‘gunman’ in their own pulp fiction.

----

Joshua

Fran 2
Hutch 1

gunzel, n. A paste made from wild barley or wheat, often used as an adhesive.

----

Hutch

gunzel, n. A gunman or armed bodyguard, esp. in organized crime.

Hutch: Mine. This is the modern definition of "gunsel". Dashiell
Hammett used the term in The Maltese Falcon to describe the
relationship between Gutman and the young gunman Wilmer. His editor,
the publisher's censor, and even the movie censor believed it to mean
gunman (as Hammett apparently intended), but it really means/meant a
young, "kept" homosexual lover: https://www.etymonline.com/word/gunsel

---

From: Fran Poodry <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2022 13:57:05 -0700

OK, I will look for a word to use! I have no idea where my old list is so I
will be starting anew.
Fran

-- 
*Fran Poodry (she/her)*
*Oregon, USA*

*“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” ― Margaret Mead
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61107.Margaret_Mead>*