Goon
/ɡuːn/noun
A foolish, brutish, or violent person; also a hired thug or enforcer.
Did you know?The strongest etymology traces English goon to the comic-strip character Alice the Goon in E. C. Segar’s Popeye comics, whose bizarre name helped turn a nonsense label into a real insult.
Etymological Timeline
1930s
English
goon
“A stupid, awkward, or brutish person; later, a thug or hired bully.”
1930
English
Alice the Goon
“A strange, hulking comic-strip character in Popeye.”
Early 20th Century
English
goon
“A silly or foolish person, probably influenced by the comic character.”
Late 19th Century
English
goon
“Dialectal English word for a foolish person or simpleton, possibly from earlier slang.”
Unknown
Origin uncertain
?
“The deeper origin is unclear; the word’s history before modern slang is not securely established.”