goon

Etymology 1

Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony ("simpleton", circa 1580), of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). Goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). * The meaning of "hired thug" (circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series. * The "fool" sense was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. * The "guard" sense was influenced by both senses 1 and 2, though not by the Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.

noun

1. A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence.
   Efforts to unionize were routinely met with clubbings, shootings, jailings, blacklistings and executions, perpetrated not only by well-armed legions of company goons, but also by police officers, deputies, National Guardsmen and even regular soldiers. February 22, 2009, Kevin Baker, “Blood on the Street”, in New York Times
2. A fool; someone who is silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish.
   Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess
3. (ice hockey, derogatory) An enforcer or fighter.
   […]a scout from the Flames came down from Saskatoon, said, "There's always room on our team for a goon" 2002, “Hit Somebody!”, performed by Warren Zevon
4. (UK, World War II, PoW slang) A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.
5. (slang) One hired to legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
   Owen Jenney, Ms. Hamburger's son, got gooned, though he said his goons turned out to be "really nice guys, actually." He is 19 now, a freshman in college, and he remembers arriving in the wilderness frightened and confused, angrily convinced that sending him across the country to Oregon was "way out of proportion" to the situation. 2016-10-20, Laura Collins-Hughes, “Therapy Becomes Theater in 'Wilderness'”, in New York Times
6. (Internet slang) A member of the comedy web site Something Awful.
   These first two steps were time-sensitive. Not only did goons need to beat Imgur's mid-May deadline but they also needed to account for the possibility that Imgur would treat the download as some kind of attack and throttle it — a possibility that, it turns out, never came to pass. 8 May 2023, Adi Robertson, “Something Awful is racing to save the best and worst of web history”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 2023-08-12

verb

1. (transitive, slang, chiefly ice hockey) To act like a goon; to act in an intimidating or aggressive way towards opponents.
   The 23-year-old posted some photos on Instagram on Saturday of himself gooning around for the camera. 2015-12-27, “Dennis Quaid's son Jack posts hilarious photo posing with his dad and siblings pulling faces on Christmas Day”, in The Daily Mail, archived from the original on 2016-01-24
   Imagine losing to a team that gooned it up and attempted to take out your best players with heavy hits? 2019-06-13, Dan Shaughnessy, “What experts are saying about the Bruins' Stanley Cup loss”, in The Boston Globe, archived from the original on 2022-12-22
   Obviously, we wanted to kill Kozlov. We thought it was the dirtiest thing in the world. Things picked up after that. We were out for blood after that. We didn't goon them. They gooned us, really, and we just had to respond. 2022-06-24, David Fleming, quoting Mike Ricci, “Fight Night at the Joe: Remembering the legendary Colorado Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings brawl of 1997”, in ESPN, archived from the original on 2022-12-22
2. (neologism) To legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
   Owen Jenney, Ms. Hamburger's son, got gooned, though he said his goons turned out to be "really nice guys, actually." He is 19 now, a freshman in college, and he remembers arriving in the wilderness frightened and confused, angrily convinced that sending him across the country to Oregon was "way out of proportion" to the situation. 2016-10-20, Laura Collins-Hughes, “Therapy Becomes Theater in 'Wilderness'”, in New York Times
   Some described being "gooned" in the middle of the night by strongmen hired by their family to forcibly transport them to camp. 2022-11-14, Nicolle Okoren, “The wilderness 'therapy' that teens say feels like abuse: 'You are on guard at all times'”, in The Guardian
   He was soon bungled out of the Patterson family’s California home and into a taxi on the way to the airport. He was being "gooned" - forcibly transported to a place aimed at correcting naughty children's behaviour. 2022-10-09, Rozina Sabur, “Troubled US teenagers 'snatched' at their parents' request”, in The Telegraph

Etymology 2

Perhaps diminutive slang for flagon or from Aboriginal English goom.

noun

1. (Australia, countable, informal) A wine flagon or cask.
   We drank goons of cheap wine. 2009, Stephen Cummings, Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?: Misadventures in Music, page 11
2. (Australia, uncountable, informal) Cheap or inferior cask wine.
   ‘On the night of our school graduation he stole a flagon of goon wine and disappeared into the woods. The police found him the next day asleep on the creek.[…]’ 2010, Patrick Holland, The Mary Smokes Boys, unnumbered page
   With these instructions, we take turns sipping the wine directly from the bottle on the beach. It′s not the classiest thing to do but the fact that it′s in a bottle already makes it classier than all the boxes of goon we′ve consumed this trip. 2010, Jason Leung, This All Encompassing Trip: Chasing Pearl Jam Around the World, page 384
   Red wine was consumed largely by posh folk, white wine meant goon, mention of a Jägerbomb would have sent its father ducking for cover, and ‘sex on the beach’ meant just that. 2011, E.C. McSween et al., Boganomics: The Science of Things Bogans Like, unnumbered page

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Japanese 呉音 (goon).

noun

1. A Sino-Japanese kanji pronunciation layer, considered the first Sino-Japanese kanji reading type imported into Japan.
   The term 語法 is read as 'gohou', using the kanji's goon readings.

Etymology 4

verb

1. (Internet slang) To enter a trance-like state after masturbating and edging for a long period of time.
   To goon, Christfister says, "Instead of powering through and jerking off 100 percent to orgasm, you ease off around 90 percent and slowly build up" to the point of no return. 21 November 2020, Michael Stahl, “The Psychedelic Science of 'Gooning' — Or Masturbating Into a Trance”, in MEL Magazine, archived from the original on 2022-07-07
   Some gooners use poppers and prescription or illicit drugs to enhance their cave time. “I love to use Adderall or Vyvanse when I goon, it gets you super hyper fixed on the porn, and also very slightly dulls your sensitivity, making you stay on the edge for literally fucking HOURS,” Redditor 420j0bud told me. 13 March 2023, Samantha Cole, quoting u/420j0bud, “Enter the Goon Cave, Where Porn and Masturbation Is All That Exists”, in VICE, archived from the original on 2023-06-13