gosling

See also: Gosling

English

Two geese with four goslings.

Etymology

From Late Middle English gosling, goselyng (“gosling”), alteration (due to Middle English goos, gose (“goose”)) of earlier gesling (“gosling”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse gæsling, géslingr (“gosling”), from gás (“goose”) + -lingr (“-ling”), equivalent to goose +‎ -ling. Cognate with Danish gæsling (“gosling”), Swedish gässling (“gosling”). Compare also Low German gossel, gössel (“gosling”), German Gänslein (“gosling”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɒzlɪŋ/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɡɑzlɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

gosling (plural goslings)

1. A young goose.

   Synonym: gooseling

   • 1988, Bruce Chatwin, Utz, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2005, →ISBN, page 50:

     Marta's gander was a magnificent snow-white bird: the object of terror to foxes, children and dogs. She had reared him as a gosling; and whenever he approached, he would let fly a low contented burble and sidle his neck around her thighs.

2. A callow (“inexperienced, immature”)), or foolish and naive, young person.
3. (dated) A catkin on nut trees and pines.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bailey to this entry?)

Coordinate terms

• duckling
• cygnet, swanling

Related terms

• goose

Translations

young goose

• Bulgarian: гъсе n (gǎse)
• Cornish: godhik m
• Czech: house (cs) n
• Dutch: gansje (nl) n, ganzenjong n
• Erzya: люляка (ljuljaka)
• Esperanto: anserido
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: hanhenpoikanen, hanhenpoika
• French: oison (fr) m, oiselet (fr) m (literary)
• German: Gänseküken n, Gänslein n, Gänschen n, (North German) Gössel (de) n, junge Gans f
• Hebrew: אווזון‎
• Hungarian: kisliba (hu)
• Irish: góislín m, éan gé m
• Italian: ochetto m, ochetta f, papero (it) m, papera (it) f, (diminutive) paperino m, (diminutive) paperina f
• Korean: 새끼거위 (saekkigeowi)
• Lithuanian: žąsiukas (lt) m

• Manx: eean guiy m
• Mi'kmaq: tagali'ji'j anim (domestic)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gåsunge m

  Nynorsk: gåsunge m

• Polish: gąsię (pl) n, gęsię (pl) n
• Portuguese: gansinho m
• Romanian: boboc (ro) m
• Russian: гусёнок (ru) m (gusjónok)
• Scottish Gaelic: isean geòidh m
• Slovak: húsa n, húsatko n (diminutive)
• Spanish: ansarino m
• Swedish: gässling (sv) c
• Turkish: (dialectal) badi (tr)
• Welsh: cyw gŵydd m
• Yiddish: גענדזל‎ n (gendzl)

callow, or foolish and naive, young person

• Dutch: domme gans f
• German: Grünschnabel (de) m

• Italian: (female) ochetta f
• Russian: глупы́ш (ru) m (glupýš)

Anagrams

• golgins, logings, oglings

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Middle English

Noun

gosling

1. Alternative form of goselyng