gossoon

plural gossoons · alternative gorsoon · alternative gazoon

1. IrelandA young boy, a servant boy; a lackey.

   ..and a whole army of gorsoons were hunting a poor dog with a kittle tied to his tail.

   1866, Patrick Kennedy, “Jack and His Comrades”, in Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts

   4 more examples

   "Why, thin, upon my throth, an' it well becomes the likes o' ye, an' that's nothin' but a bit uv a gossoon, to take upon yer to purtind not to b'lieve what yer father, an' yer father's father, an' his father afore him, nivir med the laste doubt uv."

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 377

   "Thank you for the compliment, your Reverence," he replied, construing the delicate innuendo in a favourable sense' "sure every one, high and low, knows Andy Spain, the roadmaker, after his forty years on the highway, since I was a gossoon helpin' my father, who was a roadmaker before me.Bedad, I am a well-known character, and no mistake."

   1912, Joseph Guinan, The Curate of Kilcloon, page 90

   I was a strapping young gossoon at that time, I tell you, I'll show you my likeness one day.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 3: Proteus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 43

   ‘He wants to be something he's not,’ he'd say. ‘He's fish, that gossoon, and he wants to be fowl.’

   2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 63