Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: GEESE |
GEESENoun1. Pl. of Goose. Plural1. Of Goose |
Date "GEESE" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream that you are annoyed by the quacking of geese, denotes a death in your family. To see them swimming, denotes that your fortune is gradually increasing. To see them in grassy places, denotes assured success. If you see them dead, you will suffer loss and displeasure. For a lover, geese denotes the worthiness of his affianced. If you are picking them, you will come into an estate. To eat them, denotes that your possessions are disputed. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Geese (g hard). (See Gander , Goose.) Geese save the capitol. The tradition is that when the Gauls invaded Rome a detachment in single file clambered up the hill of the capitol so silently that the foremost man reached the top without being challenged; but while he was striding over the rampart, some sacred geese, disturbed by the noise, began to cackle, and awoke the garrison. Marcus Manlius rushed to the wall and hurled the fellow over the precipice. To commemorate this event, the Romans carried a golden goose in procession to the capitol every year (B.C. 390). "Those consecrated geese in orders, That to the capitol were warders, And being then upon patrol, With noise alone beat off the Gaul." Butler: Hudibras, ii. 3. All his swans are geese, or All his swans are turned to geese. All his expectations end in nothing; all his boasting ends in smoke. Like a person who fancies he sees a swan on a river, but finds it to be only a goose. The phrase is sometimes reversed thus, "All his geese are swans." Commonly applied to people who think too much of the beauty and talent of their children. Every man thinks his own geese swans. Everyone is prejudiced by self-love. Every crow thinks its own nestling the fairest. Every child is beautiful in its mother's eyes. (See Æsop's fable, The Eagle and the Owl.) Latin: Suum cuique pulchrum. Sua cuique sponsa, mihi meas. Sua cuique res est carissima. Asinus asino, sus suo pulcher. German: Eine güte mutter halt ihre kinder vor die schönsten. French: A chaque oiseau son nid paraît beau. Italian: A ogni grolla paion' belli i suoi grollatini. Ad ogni uccello, suo nido è bello. The more geese the more lovers. The French newspaper called L'Europe, December, 1865, repeats this proverb, and says: - "It is customary in England for every gentleman admitted into society to send a fat goose at Christmas to the lady of the house he is in the habit of visiting. Beautiful women receive a whole magazine ... and are thus enabled to tell the number of their lovers by the number of fat geese sent to them." (The Times, December 27th, 1865.) Truly the Frenchman knows much more about us than we ever "dreamt of in our philosophy." Geese. (See Goose, Cag Mag.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Geese
A Canada GooseScientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae Subfamily†: Anserinae
Genera Anser
Branta
Chen
† see also: Swan, Duck
AnatidaeGoose is the general English name for a considerable number of birds, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes the swans, which are mostly larger than geese, and the ducks, which are smaller.
This article deals with the true geese in the subfamily Anserinae. A number of other waterbirds, mainly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their name. For these, see Anatidae.
Geese are medium to large birds, always (with the exception of the nene) associated with water. Most species in Europe, Asia and North America are strongly migratory as wild birds, breeding in the far north and wintering much further south. However, escapes and introductions have led to resident feral populations of several species.
All geese eat an exclusively vegetarian diet, and some can become pests when flocks feed on arable crops.
The following are some goose species.
Genus Anser, Grey Geese
Genus Anser or Chen (depending on authority cited)
- Greylag Goose Anser anser
- White-fronted Goose A. albifrons
- Lesser White-fronted Goose A. erythropus
- Bean Goose A. fabalis
- Pink-footed Goose A. brachyrhynchus
- Bar-headed Goose A. indicus
- Swan Goose, A. cygnoides
Genus Branta, Black Geese
- Snow Goose Anser caerulescens or Chen caerulescens
- Ross' Goose, A. rossii or C. rossii
- Emperor Goose, A. canagicus or C. canagica
Genus Cereopsis
- Brent Goose Branta bernicla
- Barnacle Goose B. leucopsis
- Canada Goose B. canadensis
- Red-breasted Goose B. ruficollis
- Néné or Hawaiian Goose, B. sandvicensis
The Anseriformes and the Galliformes ( pheasants etc) are ancestral to neognathous birds, and should follow ratites and tinamous in bird classification systems. See the chart below
- Cape Barren Goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae
For further taxonomic detail, see also Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.
Etymology
Goose in its origins is one of the oldest words of the Indo-European languages, the modern names deriving from the proto-Indo-European root, ghans, hence Sanskrit hamsa (feminine hamsii), Latin anser, Greek khén etc.
In the Germanic languages, the root word led to Old English gos with the plural gés, German Gans and Old Norse gas. Other modern derivatives are Russian gus and Old Irish géiss.
In non-technical use, the male goose is called a "gander" (Anglo-Saxon gandra) and the female is the "goose".
Geese in fiction
There is the goose that laid the golden eggs, warning about the perils of being too greedy. And there is also the poem Goosy Goosy Gander
See also: wildfowl, waterfowl
Goose can have some other meanings in slang.
- A fool (Common in the works of Wodehouse) or someone who is shy (also goosy/goosey).
- A (usually sexual) attack on the posterior of the body.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Goose."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Overestimation | Phrase: all his geese are swans; parturiunt montes. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: GEESE |
| English words defined with "GEESE": Anatidae, Anatiferous, Anser, Anseriformes, Axunge ♦ brant, brant goose, Branta, brent, brent goose ♦ Chenomorphae, cronk ♦ family Anatidae, flight, Fox and geese ♦ gaggle, Gargil, genus Anser, genus Branta, goose grease, Goosery, Gosherd, Goslet ♦ honk ♦ Kamichi ♦ Lamellirostral ♦ order Anseriformes ♦ poultry, puddle, Pygmy goose ♦ snow goose, Spur-winged goose ♦ Wild goose. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "GEESE": CAGG MAGGS ♦ Feather, Flee, Fly ♦ GOOSE, Goose at Michaelmas ♦ Hair, Hairs ♦ l'Affection aveugle raison ♦ MacFarlane's Geese ♦ Portuguese, Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 ♦ Stubble Geese, Swans ... Geese ♦ WILD-GOOSE CHASE. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "GEESE": Anseres. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Where you're going is the only place on earth where the geese chase you. (The Lost World: Jurassic Park; writing credit: David Koepp) ! Dr. Bela's gonna turn Geese into a kangaroo (The Harlem Globetrotters; writing credit: Tom Dagenais; Woody Kling) | |
Tongue Twisters | Three gray geese in the green grass grazing. Gray were the geese and green was the grass. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Incredible Flight of the Snow Geese (1973) Pilgrim Geese (1954) Wild Geese Calling (1941) Lena and the Geese (1912) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Geese along the Pacific flyway. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Resident Canada Geese - the ones who "forget" to fly home for the summer. Resident Canada Geese put additional stress on the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | A tray of eelgrass turf and plugs ready for transplant. Eelgrass, Zostera marina contributes substantially to the health of coastal ecosystems. Eelgrass meadows provide shelter and spawning habitat for fish and shellfish and the living blades or leaves provide food for waterfowl like brant and Canada Geese. And eelgrass is a critical element of the Bay's detrital food web. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Geese killed by Prince Albert I of Monaco in a hunt at Spitzberg. Plate VI, print 19. In: "Results of the Scientific Campaigns of the Prince of Monaco." Vol. 89. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |
 | Prarie potholes provide an abundance of vital habitat for wildlife. The structure in this wetland provides a nesting area for Canadian geese. Credit: Tim McCabe. |  | Canadian geese migrate above Maryland's eastern Shore. Credit: Tim McCabe. |
 | Canadian Geese. Credit: USDA. |  | Canada geese. Credit: USDA. |
 | Sunset on water with 3 geese. Credit: Unknown. |  | Geese on a rocky shore of the John Day River. Credit: John Craig. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Canadian Geese" by James Stephen Windsor Commentary: "This photograph of Canadian Geese particularly surprised me, as I never actually thought I was that close to the birds. My main aim was to get the birds jumping into the water, but I clicked too quick, and was left with one in launch [blurred back] and on" | "See ya!" by Simon Cataudo Commentary: "Migrating geese. Taken 14 September 2003." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Gaggle of geese flying and honking. | | Geese honking. |
| Gaggle of Canadian geese honking. | | Geese honking. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Robert Burton | All our geese are swans. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Babblings of geese against a vulture |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | Their geese and turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful, and I must confess they far exceed ours |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The adult parasite lives in the bloodstream of infected host animals such as ducks, geese, gulls, swans, as well as in certain aquatic mammals such as muskrat and beaver. (references) | |
Economic History | Kenya | Hatcheries for the production of chicken, turkeys, and geese for domestic, regional, and export market represent a major investment opportunity. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | PORTUGUESE, n.pl. A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. They are mostly without feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffed with garlic. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "GEESE" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 99.75% of the time. "GEESE" is used about 398 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 99.75% | 397 | 14,057 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 0.25% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 398 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "GEESE": all his geese are swans ♦ Fox and geese ♦ set the fox to keep the geese. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| Language | Translations for "GEESE"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pata. (various references) | |
Arabic | أوز (goose). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | гъски. (various references) | |
Chinese | 鹅 (GOOSE). (various references) | |
Czech | husy. (various references) | |
Danish | gaasefedt (fat of geese), gåsehepatitis (geese hepatitis), fedt af gaes (fat of geese), fedning af gæs (cramming of geese, fattening of geese). (various references) | |
Dutch | ganzevet (fat of geese), ganzen en eendenvoer (geese and duck feed), stoppen van ganzen (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), mesten van ganzen (cramming of geese, fattening of geese). (various references) | |
Farsi | غازها. (various references) | |
Finnish | hanhilauma (flock of geese), hanhen ja ankan rehu (geese and duck feed). (various references) | |
French | oies, oie. (various references) | |
German | Gänse. (various references) | |
Greek | χύνες, χήνεσ, χήνες. (various references) | |
Hungarian | mamlasz (chuckle-head, Cully, daw, fat-head, feather brain, featherbrain, feather-head, fumbler, gawk, goose, muff, noodle, numb-skull, numskull, oaf, simple sammy, simpleton, softie, softy, spoon), libuska (goose), libák, liba (anserine, goose, goosey, goosey-gander, goosey-goosey), lúd (goose), kipisszegés (goose), együgyű ember (goose, jay, nincompoop, ninny, noddy), csacsi (ass, ass's foal, burro, cuddy, dickey, dicky, goose, jerusalem pony, moke, Neddy), butuska (goose), buta liba (goose, silly goose). (various references) | |
Italian | grassi d'oca (fat of geese), mangime per oche e anatre (geese and duck feed), ingrasso delle oche (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), ingozzamento di oche (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), impinzamento di oche (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), alimentazione forzata (cramming of geese, fattening of geese). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 雁行 (leading out, lining up shoulder to shoulder like flying geese, the flight formation of geese). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | がんこう (all-A, benevolence, discernment, distance from the ground to the highest point of an object, eye socket, former conduct, glint in eye, good conduct, good deed, leading out, lining up shoulder to shoulder like flying geese, preceding paragraph, the flight formation of geese, the whole school). (various references) | |
Korean | 거위 (GOOSE). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eesegay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | engorda dos gansos (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), ceva dos gansos (cramming of geese, fattening of geese), alimento para gansos e patos (geese and duck feed). (various references) | |
Romanian | pl. de la goose. (various references) | |
Russian | гусь (goose), гуси. (various references) | |
Scottish | ràcail (noise of geese). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | guske. (various references) | |
Spanish | gansos. (various references) | |
Swedish | gäss. (various references) | |
Thai | ห่าน (คำนามพหูพจน์ของ goose). (various references) | |
Turkish | kazlar, kaz kafalılar, aptallar. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "GEESE": mongeese. (additional references) | |
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"GEESE" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Beese, deese, eeeeee, eeze, egedee, Eglese, Egusa, gaise, gasea, Gateshea, geace, gease, Geaye, Geebee, geene, geeser, Geeses, Geesin, geeve, geeze, Geissen, Geiste, geiz, gejes, gelees, Gelsey, genesa, genese, ges, gese, gesed, Geshe, Gessle, geues, gewe, geyes, geysa, geza, geze, ghees, gieser, gieshe, giez, glease, greese, greeze, grese, gseee, gubensee, guese, guesse, gueuze, Gueye, Guezo, gusee, gyes, Gyoezoe, Kgeisje, meese, Ngeze, seese, veese, Zeesen. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "GEESE" (pronounced gē"s) |
| 2 | -ē" s | apiece, caprice, cease, cerise, crease, decease, decrease, fleece, gees, grease, increase, lease, niece, obese, peace, Pease, piece, police, release, Seis, yeas. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-e-g-s" | |
-1 letter: gees. | |
-2 letters: gee, see, seg. | |
-3 letters: es. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-e-g-s" | |
+1 letter: gelees. | |
+2 letters: besiege, degrees, egested, elegies, elegise, emerges, geezers, geneses, reneges, seepage. | |
+3 letters: ageneses, bergeres, besieged, besieger, besieges, degrease, demerges, designee, deterges, eagerest, edgeless, edgewise, egestive, egressed, egresses, elegised, elegises, elegizes, energies, energise, epergnes, espiegle, etageres, exegeses, exegesis, exegetes, exergues, gapeseed, geekiest, genettes, gleesome, greenest, greenies, greeters, keelages, kegelers, legalese, legatees, mongeese, peerages, perigees, pledgees, refugees, regreens, regreets, remerges, renegers, reseeing, revenges, seepages, selvedge, sewerage, squeegee, steerage. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
