Meanings
gunsel1
plural gunsels
- datedslangSynonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
The boy’s eyes […] ran over Spade’s body from shoulders to knees […] “Another thing,” Spade repeated, glaring at the boy: “Keep that gunsel away from me while you’re making up your mind. I’ll kill him […] ”
1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, [p. http://books.google.com/books?id=1uVajyyVaVkC&pg=RA1-PA13 13]Synonyms: catamite
gunsel2
plural gunsels
- A gun-carrying hoodlum or other criminal.
There's somebody comin. I think it's that gunsel.
1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN1 more example
The two gunsels waited for him on each side of the doorway, gun-hands bulging in their coat pockets.
1944, Brett Halliday, Murder and the Married Virgin, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
nounSynonym of bottom: a passive partner in a male homosexual relationship.
nounSynonym of bitch: a man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship.
Origin
gunsel · noun
- Middle High Germangensel
- Yiddishגענדזל“gosling”
- Englishgunsel
From Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (“goose”).
More words from Yiddish, Middle High German
Full word history & related roots →gunsel · noun
By misunderstanding of the 1929 Maltese Falcon quotation above (1.1) (which survived in a popular 1941 film adaptation). The novel was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word gunsel knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to gun, and therefore allow it.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
gunsel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gunsel
“gunsel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gunsel. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gunsel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gunsel.
Source: gunsel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.