gunsel.
Synonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
Meaning & usage
Synonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
Synonym of bottom: a passive partner in a male homosexual relationship.
Synonym of bitch: a man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship.
Where this word comes from
From Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (“goose”).
A gun-carrying hoodlum or other criminal.
Where this word comes from
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.
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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.