gander
/ˈɡæn.dɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.89 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A surname.
name
Example Sentences
- "Ganders and geese are at their best for stock from two to ten years old. They live to a great age—it is stated to thirty or more years—but after ten years they cannot be reckoned upon as reliable assets on a farm. Two years old is the best age to mate them, making up pens of a gander and two or three geese at the New Year. It is difficult sometimes to distinguish ganders from geese. A practical man is, however, rarely mistaken."
- "Old Mother Goose / When she wanted to wander / Would ride through the air / On a very fine gander."
- "Marta's gander was a magnificent snow-white bird: the object of terror to foxes, children and dogs. She had reared him as a gosling; and whenever he approached, he would let fly a low contented burble and sidle his neck around her thighs."
- "Have a gander at what he’s written."
- "I took a gander and she seemed so familiar."
- "As well as the church and its sexton, the market house is worth a gander, while the hop fields and orchards are "reminding one of Kent", for we are in another "Garden of England"."
Etymology
From Middle English gandre, from Old English gandra, ganra (“gander”), from Proto-West Germanic *ganʀō, from Proto-Germanic *ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”). The meaning "a look" is derived from the image of craning one's neck like a goose. The meaning 'a man apart from his wife' is derived from a concept of a grass widower, and of calling a husband a goose. Cognates Cognate with Dutch gander (“gander”), Low German Gander, Ganner (“gander”), dialectal German Gandert (“gander”), German Ganter (“gander”), Norwegian gasse (“gander”), Icelandic gassi (“gander”). Compare also Lithuanian gañdras (“stork”). Related to goose, gannet.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: gandre, gandra, *ganʀō, *ganzô, *ǵʰh₂éns, ganter
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡæn.dɚ/
- British English: /ˈɡæn.də(ɹ)/
Usage
- Informal
- American usage
- Intransitive verb