[Fictionary] Gunzel Results

[Fran Poodry]

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

On Sun, Oct 2, 2022 at 10:34 AM Nicolas Ward <ultranurd at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
-- 
*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>*
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