Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A hoodlum or other criminal, especially one who carries a gun.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A young man kept for homosexual purposes; a
catamite . - noun A passive partner in anal intercourse.
- noun A
gun -carrying hoodlum or othercriminal .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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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.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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Nearly every detective story writer in the business has taken over the word gunsel and used it to mean a gunman.
In The Queens' Parlour Queen, Ellery 1864
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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.
In The Queens' Parlour Queen, Ellery 1864
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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.
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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.
In The Queens' Parlour Queen, Ellery 1864
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The story began with the word 'gunsel', which I discovered in the dictionary.
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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.
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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 2008
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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.
victoriapl commented on the word gunsel
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
December 3, 2007
asativum commented on the word gunsel
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.
January 18, 2008
bilby commented on the word gunsel
See also gunzel.
March 29, 2016