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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Gauner.

petty thief, crook, racketeer

6 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡaʊ̯nər/[ˈɡaʊ̯.nɐ]
  1. petty thief, crook, racketeer

    informal · masculine · strong
  2. sly, cunning person

    informal · masculine · strong
Where this word comes from

From thieves’ cant (Rotwelsch) Jauner, Joner (“gambler, cardsharp”), attested ca. 1500 alongside the verb jonen. Further usually derived from Yiddish יוון (Yoven/Yovon, “Greece”), from Hebrew יָוָן (yāwān), because Greeks were said to be skilful cardsharps (compare French Grec in this sense). The anlaut is due to hypercorrection based on the widespread Central German pronunciation of initial g- as /j/. The form was established by Lessing.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.