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OP In the book I'm reading right now - my third novel by Rohinton Mistry in the last few months - there's an interesting intermingling of English and, presumably, Hindi, as the books all take place in India. The word they use for goon, in the sense of "an enforcer, a thug, sent to deter troublemakers", is goonda. I looked up goon in my dictionary and it more or less waffled, gave some excuse about some radio show (name escapes me at the moment), but didn't seem very certain. Is the similarity in the sound of the word, with the same definition, just coincidence, or did one come from the other? And if they are related, who stole the word from whom? Anyone with an OED or some working knowledge of India, please help me...it's been bugging me since I looked it up in the dictionary last night and got this silly excuse for an etymology.
And when did the word first come into use? This book is set in the mid-1970s.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Goon (not the show) Bean 09/09/02 11:02 AM wild goose chase wofahulicodoc 09/09/02 11:57 AM Re: wild goose chase wwh 09/09/02 12:48 PM Re: Goon (not the show) of troy 09/09/02 01:08 PM Re: Goon (not the show) wofahulicodoc 09/09/02 01:44 PM Re: Goon (not the show) doc_comfort 09/11/02 06:08 AM Re: Goon/Goof FishonaBike 09/09/02 02:56 PM Re: Goon/Goof Bean 09/09/02 03:04 PM Re: Goon/Goof FishonaBike 09/09/02 03:30 PM Re: Israeli Goonda AnnaStrophic 09/09/02 03:37 PM Re: Goon/Goof Bean 09/09/02 05:14 PM Re: Goon/thug/union goon WhitmanO'Neill 09/09/02 06:04 PM Re: Goon/thug/union goon Alex Williams 09/09/02 08:09 PM Re: Goon/Goof FishonaBike 09/10/02 02:32 PM Re: Goon/Goof Bean 09/10/02 02:36 PM Re: Goon/Goof tsuwm 09/10/02 02:47 PM Re: Goon/Goof of troy 09/11/02 12:06 PM Re: Goon/Goof Bean 09/11/02 01:10 PM
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