"gunzel" meaning in English

See gunzel in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈɡʌnzl̩/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav [Southern-England] Forms: gunzels [plural]
Etymology: Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)). There is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961). Etymology templates: {{m|en|gunsel|t=stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite}} gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), {{der|en|yi|גענדזל|t=gosling}} Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), {{der|en|gmh|gensel}} Middle High German gensel, {{m|gmh|gans|t=goose}} gans (“goose”), {{cog|de|Gänslein|t=gosling}} German Gänslein (“gosling”), {{m|de|Gans|t=goose}} Gans (“goose”), {{der|en|ine-pro|*ǵʰh₂éns|t=goose}} Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”), {{m|en|gunsel|t=a gun-carrying hoodlum}} gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} gunzel (plural gunzels)
  1. (Australia) A railway or tram enthusiast; particularly (formerly derogatory) one who is overly enthusiastic or foolish. Tags: Australia Categories (topical): People, Rail transportation Synonyms (railway or tram enthusiast): ferroequinologist [humorous, nonstandard], foamer, railfan [US], trainspotter
    Sense id: en-gunzel-en-noun-tBhoXEmy Disambiguation of People: 30 21 32 17 Disambiguation of Rail transportation: 53 10 24 13 Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 30 21 16 33 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 32 24 23 21 Disambiguation of 'railway or tram enthusiast': 78 18 4
  2. (Australia, by extension) An enthusiast or geek with a specific interest. Tags: Australia, broadly Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-gunzel-en-noun-IgynbW4m Disambiguation of People: 30 21 32 17 Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 30 21 16 33
  3. (US) Alternative spelling of gunsel. Tags: US, alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: gunsel Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-gunzel-en-noun-YZz8r-NY Disambiguation of People: 30 21 32 17 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 30 21 16 33

Verb

IPA: /ˈɡʌnzl̩/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav [Southern-England] Forms: gunzels [present, singular, third-person], gunzelling [participle, present], gunzelled [participle, past], gunzelled [past]
Etymology: Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)). There is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961). Etymology templates: {{m|en|gunsel|t=stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite}} gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), {{der|en|yi|גענדזל|t=gosling}} Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), {{der|en|gmh|gensel}} Middle High German gensel, {{m|gmh|gans|t=goose}} gans (“goose”), {{cog|de|Gänslein|t=gosling}} German Gänslein (“gosling”), {{m|de|Gans|t=goose}} Gans (“goose”), {{der|en|ine-pro|*ǵʰh₂éns|t=goose}} Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”), {{m|en|gunsel|t=a gun-carrying hoodlum}} gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”) Head templates: {{en-verb|++}} gunzel (third-person singular simple present gunzels, present participle gunzelling, simple past and past participle gunzelled)
  1. (intransitive) To engage in railway enthusiast activities. Tags: intransitive Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-gunzel-en-verb-mfVR02fs Disambiguation of People: 30 21 32 17 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 30 21 16 33

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for gunzel meaning in English (13.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”)",
      "name": "m"
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      "args": {
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        "3": "גענדזל",
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      "name": "der"
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      "expansion": "Middle High German gensel",
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      "args": {
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "German Gänslein (“gosling”)",
      "name": "cog"
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    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "ine-pro",
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      },
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      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "a gun-carrying hoodlum"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel,\ndiminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)).\nThere is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961).",
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      "form": "gunzels",
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        "plural"
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      "args": {},
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
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        },
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          "_dis": "53 10 24 13",
          "kind": "topical",
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          "orig": "en:Rail transportation",
          "parents": [
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            "All topics",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Mark Dapin, “Trainspotting”, in Strange Country: Travels in a Very Different Australia, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, book 4 (From Melbourne to Sydney), page 293",
          "text": "'There're people who have an intellectual impairment,' he said, 'and studying trains seems a natural thing for them to gravitate to. And then there're people who have more of a hobby-style interest in it.' […] He feels gunzels are misunderstood by the outside world …",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 January 9, Jeremy Lee, “Foamers, Gunzels, and Gricers: Attention All Foamers, Gunzels, and Gricers – the Warrnambool Model Railway Club are about to Display Their Wares Once Again”, in ABC South West Victoria, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "[L]ike many model train enthusiasts, he now takes some pride in being called a foamer, or a gunzel, or even a gricer – all names for those who enjoy model trains.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 December 31, Adam Carey, quoting John Andrews, “Tram driver who lived for the job was ‘last of his kind’”, in The Age, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "He loved the job and for him the job was his life. He wasn't a gunzel [tram obsessive], he was far more interested [in] his passengers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 November 15, Adam Carey, “New myki card readers no faster”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 2012-11-16",
          "text": "Marcus Wong, a self-described gunzel (rail obsessive) and engineering geek, conducted his experiment in two stages – timing the hybrid Metcard/myki barriers in June and again last week with the new myki-only gates that have replaced them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 June 28, Darren Gray, “Riding the grain train: It weighs 3030 tonnes, is more than 600 metres long, and can take five kilometres to stop. It’s the mega-train taking our grain to the docks.”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "At 2.27am when it slows to a halt at Bendigo railway station for a crew change, two young gunzels (rail fanatics) are waiting with cameras on the platform alongside the crew.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 May 3, Hannah Francis, “Melbourne ‘connies’ celebrate Kew tram depot centenary”, in Brisbane Times",
          "text": "Los Angeles is \"the city of angels\". And Melbourne? Well, Melbourne should be the \"city of gunzels\", says former tram conductor Roberto D'Andrea.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 December 2, Adam Carey, “Faster myki readers being trialled on new E-Class trams”, in The Age, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "Gunzels take note: the trial next generation reader has been installed on tram number 6008.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A railway or tram enthusiast; particularly (formerly derogatory) one who is overly enthusiastic or foolish."
      ],
      "id": "en-gunzel-en-noun-tBhoXEmy",
      "links": [
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          "railway",
          "railway"
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          "tram",
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          "enthusiast"
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        [
          "enthusiastic",
          "enthusiastic"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia) A railway or tram enthusiast; particularly (formerly derogatory) one who is overly enthusiastic or foolish."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
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          "_dis1": "78 18 4",
          "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
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            "humorous",
            "nonstandard"
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          "_dis1": "78 18 4",
          "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
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        {
          "_dis1": "78 18 4",
          "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
          "tags": [
            "US"
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          "_dis1": "78 18 4",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016, Tom Chesshyre, Ticket to Ride: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers",
          "text": "I ask him about Australian trainspotters. 'Do such people exist?' / 'We call them train gunzels. A gunzel is a person who is really stuck on one thing. In Sydney you get guys on the platforms. This carriage here is the CDF924 – that's the number for Matilda's Restaurant. The guys on the platform will say, \"Oh, I haven't seen that for a while\"[…]'",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        [
          "interest",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, by extension) An enthusiast or geek with a specific interest."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "broadly"
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          "word": "gunsel"
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        "(US) Alternative spelling of gunsel."
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      "ipa": "/ˈɡʌnzl̩/",
      "tags": [
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        "Received-Pronunciation"
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav",
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
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      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
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    "Dashiell Hammet",
    "Michael Quinion",
    "Newsweek",
    "Random House"
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  "word": "gunzel"
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{
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      "expansion": "gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”)",
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  "etymology_text": "Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel,\ndiminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)).\nThere is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961).",
  "forms": [
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    {
      "form": "gunzelled",
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    {
      "form": "gunzelled",
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  "pos": "verb",
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      "glosses": [
        "To engage in railway enthusiast activities."
      ],
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        [
          "railway",
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          "enthusiast",
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          "activities",
          "activity"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To engage in railway enthusiast activities."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
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    "Dashiell Hammet",
    "Michael Quinion",
    "Newsweek",
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  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yi",
        "3": "גענדזל",
        "t": "gosling"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "gensel"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German gensel",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gmh",
        "2": "gans",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "gans (“goose”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Gänslein",
        "t": "gosling"
      },
      "expansion": "German Gänslein (“gosling”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Gans",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "Gans (“goose”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*ǵʰh₂éns",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "a gun-carrying hoodlum"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel,\ndiminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)).\nThere is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gunzels",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "gunzel (plural gunzels)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "gun‧zel"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Mark Dapin, “Trainspotting”, in Strange Country: Travels in a Very Different Australia, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, book 4 (From Melbourne to Sydney), page 293",
          "text": "'There're people who have an intellectual impairment,' he said, 'and studying trains seems a natural thing for them to gravitate to. And then there're people who have more of a hobby-style interest in it.' […] He feels gunzels are misunderstood by the outside world …",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 January 9, Jeremy Lee, “Foamers, Gunzels, and Gricers: Attention All Foamers, Gunzels, and Gricers – the Warrnambool Model Railway Club are about to Display Their Wares Once Again”, in ABC South West Victoria, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "[L]ike many model train enthusiasts, he now takes some pride in being called a foamer, or a gunzel, or even a gricer – all names for those who enjoy model trains.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 December 31, Adam Carey, quoting John Andrews, “Tram driver who lived for the job was ‘last of his kind’”, in The Age, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "He loved the job and for him the job was his life. He wasn't a gunzel [tram obsessive], he was far more interested [in] his passengers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 November 15, Adam Carey, “New myki card readers no faster”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 2012-11-16",
          "text": "Marcus Wong, a self-described gunzel (rail obsessive) and engineering geek, conducted his experiment in two stages – timing the hybrid Metcard/myki barriers in June and again last week with the new myki-only gates that have replaced them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 June 28, Darren Gray, “Riding the grain train: It weighs 3030 tonnes, is more than 600 metres long, and can take five kilometres to stop. It’s the mega-train taking our grain to the docks.”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "At 2.27am when it slows to a halt at Bendigo railway station for a crew change, two young gunzels (rail fanatics) are waiting with cameras on the platform alongside the crew.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 May 3, Hannah Francis, “Melbourne ‘connies’ celebrate Kew tram depot centenary”, in Brisbane Times",
          "text": "Los Angeles is \"the city of angels\". And Melbourne? Well, Melbourne should be the \"city of gunzels\", says former tram conductor Roberto D'Andrea.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 December 2, Adam Carey, “Faster myki readers being trialled on new E-Class trams”, in The Age, archived from the original on 2018-02-22",
          "text": "Gunzels take note: the trial next generation reader has been installed on tram number 6008.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A railway or tram enthusiast; particularly (formerly derogatory) one who is overly enthusiastic or foolish."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "railway",
          "railway"
        ],
        [
          "tram",
          "tram"
        ],
        [
          "enthusiast",
          "enthusiast"
        ],
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "overly",
          "overly"
        ],
        [
          "enthusiastic",
          "enthusiastic"
        ],
        [
          "foolish",
          "foolish"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia) A railway or tram enthusiast; particularly (formerly derogatory) one who is overly enthusiastic or foolish."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016, Tom Chesshyre, Ticket to Ride: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers",
          "text": "I ask him about Australian trainspotters. 'Do such people exist?' / 'We call them train gunzels. A gunzel is a person who is really stuck on one thing. In Sydney you get guys on the platforms. This carriage here is the CDF924 – that's the number for Matilda's Restaurant. The guys on the platform will say, \"Oh, I haven't seen that for a while\"[…]'",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An enthusiast or geek with a specific interest."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "geek",
          "geek"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, by extension) An enthusiast or geek with a specific interest."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "gunsel"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "American English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative spelling of gunsel."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "gunsel",
          "gunsel#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Alternative spelling of gunsel."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɡʌnzl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/25/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/25/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "nonstandard"
      ],
      "word": "ferroequinologist"
    },
    {
      "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
      "word": "foamer"
    },
    {
      "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "word": "railfan"
    },
    {
      "sense": "railway or tram enthusiast",
      "word": "trainspotter"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Burton Lazars",
    "Dashiell Hammet",
    "Michael Quinion",
    "Newsweek",
    "Random House"
  ],
  "word": "gunzel"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Middle High German",
    "English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
    "English terms derived from Yiddish",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "en:People",
    "en:Rail transportation"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yi",
        "3": "גענדזל",
        "t": "gosling"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmh",
        "3": "gensel"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle High German gensel",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gmh",
        "2": "gans",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "gans (“goose”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Gänslein",
        "t": "gosling"
      },
      "expansion": "German Gänslein (“gosling”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Gans",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "Gans (“goose”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*ǵʰh₂éns",
        "t": "goose"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gunsel",
        "t": "a gun-carrying hoodlum"
      },
      "expansion": "gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel,\ndiminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)).\nThere is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gunzels",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunzelling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunzelled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunzelled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "++"
      },
      "expansion": "gunzel (third-person singular simple present gunzels, present participle gunzelling, simple past and past participle gunzelled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "gun‧zel"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in railway enthusiast activities."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "engage",
          "engage"
        ],
        [
          "railway",
          "railway"
        ],
        [
          "enthusiast",
          "enthusiast"
        ],
        [
          "activities",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To engage in railway enthusiast activities."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɡʌnzl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/25/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/25/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-gunzel.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Burton Lazars",
    "Dashiell Hammet",
    "Michael Quinion",
    "Newsweek",
    "Random House"
  ],
  "word": "gunzel"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (ae36afe and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.