donkey
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɒŋki/
ipa: /ˈdɑŋki/
other: /ˈdɔŋki/
other: /ˈdʌŋki/
rhymes: -ɒŋki
Forms: form: donkeys
form: donkies
Etymology: The origin is uncertain. Originally a slang term from the late eighteenth century. Perhaps from Middle English *donekie (“a miniature dun horse”), a double diminutive of Middle English don, dun, dunne (a name for a dun horse), equivalent to modern English dun (“brownish grey colour”) + -ock (diminutive suffix) + -ie (diminutive suffix), or similarly formed from the given name Duncan. Compare Middle English donning (“a dun horse”), English dunnock. Became more common than the original term ass due to the latter's homophony and partial merger with arse (compare similar development between coney and rabbit).
Senses: examples: text: Lost last Saturday between twenty and thirty shillings they that have found it please to leave it heare there is five shillings reward by Wm. Roberts that goeth with a Donkey with many thanks
ref: 1776 August 24, “[untitled]”, in Ipswich Journal, Ipswich, Suffolk, page 1:
text: DONKEY, donkey dick, a he, or jack ass, called donkey, perhaps from the Spanish, or don like gravity of that animal, entitled also the king of Spain's trumpeter
ref: 1785, Anonymous [Francis Grose], A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: S. Hooper:
text: I vow we must be near the place from where
The two converging slides, the avalanches,
On Marshall, look like donkey's ears.
We may as well see that and save the day.”
“Don't donkey's ears suggest we shake our own?
'For God's sake, aren't you fond of viewing nature?[…]
ref: 2013 November 17, Robert Frost, Delphi Collected Works of Robert Frost (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series), Delphi Classics, →ISBN, →OCLC:
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glosses: A domestic animal, Equus asinus asinus, similar to a horse.
synonyms: word: donkey
word: bulldog
word: mule
glosses: A stubborn person.
synonyms: word: alcatote
word: asshat
word: arsehole
word: asshole
word: bayard
word: berk
word: birdbrain
word: blither
word: bobchin
word: bonehead
word: bozo
word: buffoon
word: brickhead
word: Charlie
word: chucklehead
word: chowderhead
word: chump
word: clart
word: clown
word: der-brain
word: dill pickle
word: dim bulb
word: dingleberry
word: dipshit
word: dipstick
word: dirtbrain
word: div
word: divvo
word: divvy
word: dolt
word: donk
word: doodle
word: doofus
word: dope
word: dork
word: dote
word: dotterel
word: dullard
word: dumbass
word: dumbbell
word: dumb fuck
word: dummy
word: dunce
word: dunderhead
word: dupe
word: fathead
word: fenderhead
word: fiddle
word: fuckwit
word: fuzznut
word: geck
word: gig
word: gink
word: goober
word: gooseberry
word: gowk
word: gubbins
word: gump
word: ha'p'orth
word: Homer Simpson
word: ignoramus
word: imbecile
word: jamoke
word: jerk
word: jerkoff
word: jolterhead
word: jolthead
word: juggins
word: jughead
word: knucklehead
word: lamebrain
word: mameluke (US (Italian-American)
word: slang)
word: maroon
word: meathead
word: mong
word: moron
word: mug
word: muggins
word: mushhead
word: nimrod
word: nincompoop
word: nit
word: nitwit
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: numskull
word: numps
word: numpty
word: nupson
word: oaf
word: pillock
word: pinhead
word: plonker
word: prat
word: retard
word: shit for brains
word: shithead
word: shitwit
word: schmo
word: schmuck
word: snapperhead
word: softhead
word: sot
word: stupid
word: sucker
word: thickhead
word: tonto
word: tool
word: tosser
word: tosspot
word: twat
word: twerp
word: twit
word: wally
word: wantwit
word: wazzock
word: yampy
glosses: A fool.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: donkey engine
glosses: A small auxiliary engine.
topics: government
military
naval
navy
politics
war
glosses: A box or chest, especially a toolbox.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: A bad poker player.
examples: text: The chest may be found among those who stick to the sailing vessels, but for the steamer, the donkey died its natural death when the Suez Canal—responsible for many changes at sea—became an accomplished fact.
ref: 1903, W. H. Hood, The Blight of Insubordination, page 80:
glosses: British sea term for a sailor's storage chest.
Derived terms: antidonkey
Balkan donkey
Buridan's donkey
dead donkey
donkey anaphora
donkeyback
donkey bid
donkey boiler
donkey-boy
donkey cock
donkeycock
donkeydick
donkey dick
donkey drop
donkey ears
donkey engine
donkey fringe
donkeyfucker
donkeyhood
donkeyish
donkeyism
donkey jacket
donkey kick
Donkey Kong
donkeyman
donkey orchid
donkey power
donkeypower
donkey pronoun
donkey pump
donkey punch
donkey-punch
donkey rhubarb
donkey route
donkey's ears
donkey sentence
donkey's eye
donkeyshit
donkey shoe
donkey show
donkey stone
donkey stool
donkey's years
donkey vote
donkey voter
donkey work
donkra
heavy as a dead donkey
hung like a donkey
miniature donkey
nodding donkey
pin the tail on the donkey
Sardinian donkey
sea donkey
Spanish donkey
steam donkey
suck donkey balls
suck donkey cock
suck donkey dick
talk the ears off a donkey
talk the hind leg off a donkey
talk the hind legs off a donkey
up goes the donkey
weredonkey
young donkey
zeedonk
zonkey
Related terms: ass
mule
hinny