The word goney, with the same meaning, is often used.
"How the goney swallowed it all, didn't he?" said Mr. Slick, with great glee.—Slick in England, Chap. XXI.
Some on 'em were fools enough to believe the goney; that's a fact.—Ibid.
GOOD FELLOW. At the University of Vermont, this term is used with a signification directly opposite to that which it usually has. It there designates a soft-brained boy; one who is lacking in intellect, or, as a correspondent observes, "an epithetical fool."
GOODY. At Harvard College, a woman who has the care of the students' rooms. The word seems to be an abbreviated form of the word goodwife. It has long been in use, as a low term of civility or sport, and in some cases with the signification of a good old dame; but in the sense above given it is believed to be peculiar to Harvard College. In early times, sweeper was in use instead of goody, and even now at Yale College the word sweep is retained. The words bed-maker at Cambridge, Eng., and gyp at Oxford, express the same idea.
The Rebelliad, an epic poem, opens with an invocation to the
Goody, as follows.
Old Goody Muse! on thee I call,
Pro more, (as do poets all,)
To string thy fiddle, wax thy bow,
And scrape a ditty, jig, or so.
Now don't wax wrathy, but excuse
My calling you old Goody Muse;
Because "Old Goody" is a name
Applied to every college dame.
Aloft in pendent dignity,
Astride her magic broom,
And wrapt in dazzling majesty,
See! see! the Goody come!—p. 11.
Go on, dear Goody! and recite
The direful mishaps of the fight.—Ibid., p. 20.
The Goodies hearing, cease to sweep,
And listen; while the cook-maids weep.—Ibid., p. 47.
The Goody entered with her broom,
To make his bed and sweep his room.—Ibid., p. 73.