What is the origin of have a gander? (When meaning look. ) No doubt to gander became the term because to goose had already been borrowed; this was taken from the way that the birds were known to put their beaks embarrassingly — and sometimes painfully — into one’s more private places to take a gander, is recorded from the USA around 1914; here, gander is a noun in the sense of a inquisitive look
Does take a gander commonly mean take a chance? Looking for "a gander at" and gamble returns results like this: Before you can play on the site you ordinarily have the opportunity to take a gander at the distinctive chances (for sports betting) at the diverse recreations accessible (for online casinos) or the quantity of players (for poker sites)
Whats good for the goose is good for the gander [closed] Wiktionary offers a clear restatement of this idiom: What is good for a woman is equally good for a man This phrasing preserves the gender implied in the original idiom (gander is male, goose is female) If you want to say it without referring to gender, use: What is good for one is equally good for all
to sound down to somebody - English Language Usage Stack Exchange “ The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation ” Quote by Walt Whitman, Song of Myself What does the writer mean by "sounds it down to me"? I can read this sentence in two different ways 1 It (Ya-honk) sounds - or seems - to him like an invitation 2 It (the gander) sounds it down like an invitation to him Which
Whats the origin of the word geezer? - English Language Usage . . . "Geezer" actually means an odd or eccentric man This word came from guise, which was: (in Scotland and N England) the practice or custom of disguising oneself in fancy dress, often with a mask, and visiting people's houses, esp at Halloween The above is the origin of guiser Thus, it was used in slang to describe someone as odd, and it was pronounced "geezer" due to as you said, the Cockney
Why is a woman a widow and a man a widower? I suspect because the phrase was only needed for women and widower is a much later literary invention Widow had a lot of legal implications for property, titles and so on If the survivor of a marriage was a woman things got complicated before women had many rights If the survivor was a man in the middle ages it didn't really make much difference as he held all the property anyway A similar
idioms - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Your literal translation sounds more like an expression of spite -- that you are willing to suffer just for the pleasure of ensuring the other guy suffers more Your figurative translation expresses a fairly different sentiment; that you benefit from another's loss Can you clarify whether it's the figurative translation you want an idiom for, or that you're looking for something that retains
What do you say when you dont know someones gender? You're talking about personal pronouns, not articles As well, when you say that you don't know the person's gender, do you mean that you don't know what gender, masculine or feminine, they identify with; or do you mean that you don't know if they are male or female? If it's the latter, you're talking about their sex
Is there a Male suffix equivalent to -et -ette? For example, A junior English grammar (1902) lists four: bridegroom, drake, gander, and widower (but OED does not support the claim that drake and gander were formed this way) You already mentioned widower, so let's look at bridegroom According to OED, it was formed from brýd + guma The word bride is obviously still in use, but guma is not