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donkey

noun
/ˈdɒŋ.ki/UK/ˈdɑŋ.ki/US

Etymology

The origin is uncertain. Originally a slang term from the late eighteenth century. Perhaps from Middle English *donekie (“a miniature dun horse”), a double diminutive of Middle English don, dun, dunne (a name for a dun horse), equivalent to modern English dun (“brownish grey colour”) + -ock (diminutive suffix) + -ie (diminutive suffix), or similarly formed from the given name Duncan. Compare Middle English donning (“a dun horse”), English dunnock. Became more common than the original term ass due to the latter's homophony and partial merger with arse (compare similar development between coney and rabbit).

  1. derived from don
  2. inherited from *donekie✻ — “a miniature dun horse”

Definitions

  1. A domestic animal, Equus asinus asinus, similar to a horse.

    • Lost last Saturday between twenty and thirty shillings they that have found it please to leave it heare there is five shillings reward by Wm. Roberts that goeth with a Donkey with many thanks
    • DONKEY, donkey dick, a he, or jack ass, called donkey, perhaps from the Spanish, or don like gravity of that animal, entitled also the king of Spain's trumpeter

  2. A stubborn person.

  3. A fool.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. A small auxiliary engine.

    2. A box or chest, especially a toolbox.

    3. A bad poker player.

    4. A sailor's storage chest.

      • The chest may be found among those who stick to the sailing vessels, but for the steamer, the donkey died its natural death when the Suez Canal—responsible for many changes at sea—became an accomplished fact.

The neighborhood

Derived

African wild donkey, antidonkey, Balkan donkey, Buridan's donkey, dead donkey, donkey anaphora, donkeyback, donkey bean, donkey bid, donkey boiler, donkey-boy, donkey cock, donkeycock, donkeydick, donkey dick, donkey drop, donkey ears, donkey engine, donkey fringe, donkeyfucker, donkeyhood, donkeyish, donkeyism, donkey jacket, donkey kick, Donkey Kong, donkeyman, donkey orchid, donkeypower, donkey power, donkey pronoun, donkey pump, donkey-punch, donkey punch, donkey rhubarb, donkey route, donkey's ears, donkey sentence, donkey's eye, donkeyshit · +30 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for donkey. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA