gossampine, a cotton-like substance, made from the Bombax pentandrum. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1377); p. 135, col. 1; Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xii, ch. 11. L. gossympinus, a cotton-tree (Pliny).
gossander, the ‘goosander’, Mergus merganser. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 65. With the suffix -ander cp. bergander, an old name for the sheldrake, and the ON. önd, pl. ander, a duck (NED.).
gossip, a godparent. Two Gent. iii. 1. 269; Wint. Tale, ii. 3. 41. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). See Dict.
gouland, gowland, a yellow flower; a name given to various kinds of Ranunculus, Caltha, and Trollius. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, 1. 6). ‘As yalla as a gollan’ is a common Northumberland expression; see EDD. (s.v. Gowlan(d ).
gourdes, false dice, for gaming; ‘What false dise vse they? as dise . . . of a vauntage, flattes, gourdes to chop and change whan they lyste’, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 54); spelt gords, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, iv. 1 (E. Loveless). OF. gourd, ‘fourberie’ (Godefroy).
gove, to ‘goave’; to lay up corn in a ‘goaf’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57. 10, 23. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Goave). ME. golvyn, ‘arconiso’ (Prompt. EETS. 207). Cp. Dan. gulve, to stack in the bay of a barn. See [gofe].
gow, for go we, let us go; ‘Gow, wife, gow’, Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 440; gaw, let’s be gone, Triumphs of Love and Fortune, in the same, vi. 183. ‘Gow’ (‘let us go’) is still common in the Lakeland, and in E. Anglia as an invitation to accompany the speaker, see EDD. (s.v. Go, 2 (b)). ME. gowe (P. Plowman, B, Prol. 226).
gowked, stupefied. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 4 (Keep). Cp. ‘gowk’, the north-country word for the cuckoo; applied fig. to a fool, simpleton, a clumsy, awkward fellow (EDD.). ME. goke, ‘cuculus’ (Cath. Angl.), Icel. gaukr, cp. G. gauch.
gowles, ‘gules’, red. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 286. 17. OF. goules (F. gueules). See Dict. (s.v. Gules).
gowndy, (of the eyes) full of sore matter. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 34; gunny, Meriton, Praise Ale, 263; Skinner, Etym. ME. gownde off þe eye, ‘albugo’ (Prompt. EETS. 197, see note, no. 905). OE. gund, matter of a sore.