gander

From Middle English gandre, from Old English gandra, ganra (“gander”), from Proto-Germanic *ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns- (“goose”). Cognate with Dutch gander (“gander”), Low German Gander, Ganner (“gander”), dialectal German Gandert (“gander”), German Ganter (“gander”), Norwegian gasse (“gander”), Icelandic gassi (“gander”). Related to goose, gannet.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡæn.də(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ændə(ɹ)

gander (plural ganders)

1. A male goose.
   • 1916, Blanche Fisher Wright, The Original Mother Goose

     Old Mother Goose / When she wanted to wander / Would ride through the air / On a very fine gander.

2. A fool, simpleton.
3. (slang, used only with “have”, “get” and “take”) A glance, look.

   Have a gander at what he’s written.

   I took a gander and she seemed so familiar.

4. (US) A man living apart from his wife.

• (slang, look): butcher's, butcher's hook (Cockney rhyming slang for "look")

• Michigander
• take a gander
• what's good for the goose is good for the gander
• what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

gander (third-person singular simple present ganders, present participle gandering, simple past and past participle gandered)

1. (dialectal, intransitive) ramble, wander

• Garden, danger, garden, grande, graned, nadger, ranged

Most likely from English gander or Low German gander, ganner. Both are possibly formed from gans (“goose”) in an analogous way as kater (“male cat”) from kat (“(female) cat”) and doffer (“male dove”) from duif (“(female) dove”).

• Audio

  (file)

gander m (plural ganders, diminutive gandertje n)

1. gander, male goose

• (male goose): ganzerik, gent, mannetjesgans

• dragen