Word: goon Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural). * Etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series. * Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. * Etymology 1, noun sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both etymology 1, noun sense 1 and etymology 1, noun sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII. Pronunciation: /ˈɡuːn/ 1. A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Efforts to unionize were routinely met with clubbings, shootings, jailings, blacklistings and executions, perpetrated not only by well-armed legions of company goons, but also by police officers, deputies, National Guardsmen and even regular soldiers. 2. A hired and paid person who is assigned to terrorize and kill opponents. Labels: US, countable, informal, uncountable 3. A fool; someone who is silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected. Example: Sending for the goon who sent for me / He's thinking he's hard, yeah, it's Little T 4. An enforcer or fighter. Labels: countable, derogatory, uncountable Example: […]a scout from the Flames came down from Saskatoon, said, "There's always room on our team for a goon" 5. A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp. Labels: UK, countable, uncountable 6. One hired to legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: Owen Jenney, Ms. Hamburger's son, got gooned, though he said his goons turned out to be "really nice guys, actually." He is 19 now, a freshman in college, and he remembers arriving in the wilderness frightened and confused, angrily convinced that sending him across the country to Oregon was "way out of proportion" to the situation. 7. Box wine. Labels: Australia, colloquial, uncountable Example: Once a tap was designed in the 1970s goon climbed quickly to make up about 50 per cent of wine sales in Australia. In the days when restaurants sold "house wine", goon was known for being economical above anything else, and convenient, associated more with families on a budget and people on low incomes. 8. A member of the comedy website Something Awful. Labels: Internet, countable, uncountable Example: These first two steps were time-sensitive. Not only did goons need to beat Imgur's mid-May deadline but they also needed to account for the possibility that Imgur would treat the download as some kind of attack and throttle it — a possibility that, it turns out, never came to pass.