gonzo

Coined in 1971 by Boston Globe editor Bill Cardoso. Of uncertain origin; OED proposes Italian gonzo (“dolt”) and/or Spanish ganso (“dolt, goose”).[1] The etymology supplied by Cardoso himself (French gonzeaux) is spurious.[2]

• enPR: gŏnʹzō
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑnzoʊ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒnzəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnzəʊ

gonzo (comparative more gonzo, superlative most gonzo)

1. (journalism) Using an unconventional, exaggerated and highly subjective style, often when the reporter takes part in the events of the story.
   • 1972, Richard Pollack, chapter VI, in Stop the Presses, I Want to Get Off!:

     I ask Hunter to explain... Just what is Gonzo Journalism?.. “Gonzo all started with Bill Cardosa [sic],..after I wrote the Kentucky Derby piece for Scanlan's..the first time I realized you could write different. And..I got this note from Cardosa saying, ‘That was pure Gonzo journalism!’.. Some Boston word for weird, bizarre.”

2. Unconventional, bizarre, crazy. [from 1974][3]
   • 2007, Mark Dery, The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink‎, page 121:

     Nicholson’s Torrance is an evil clown […] Appropriately, pop culture has embraced him as a gonzo antihero: ads for T-shirts emblazoned with the “Here’s Johnny” Nicholson

   • 2021, Peter Oborne, The Assault on Truth, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 62:

     Johnson abandoned all of these [values] for a narcissism that mocked the style of straightforward, sober, serious, self effacing politics of the post-war era. He turned his back on the public domain and the ideas of duty, honour and obligation that defined it. For him, politics was a personal story which saw the evolution of Britain's first gonzo political journalist into our first gonzo prime minister.

• gonzo journalism

gonzo (countable and uncountable, plural gonzos)

1. Gonzo journalism or a journalist who produces such journalism.
   • 2000, Hunter S. Thompson, Douglas Brinkley, Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, 1968-1976:

     “Unstable,” indeed! Those swine. Next year we should demand a Gonzo category—or maybe RS should give it. Of course. “The First Annual Rolling Stone Award for the Year's Finest Example of Pure Gonzo Journalism.”

2. (countable) A wild or crazy person.

• gonzo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Old French gons, from Latin gomphus, from Ancient Greek γόμφος (gómphos), from Proto-Hellenic *gómpʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos. Doublet of golfón.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡon.θo/, [ˈɡonθʊ], (western) [ˈɡonsʊ]
• Hyphenation: gon‧zo

gonzo m (plural gonzos)

1. hinge

   Synonyms: bisagra f, porlón m

• engonzar
• esgonzar

• “gonço” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “gonzo” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “gonzo” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “gonzo” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Unknown. Some suggest by aphesis from Latin verēcundus (“bashful, shamefaced”, see verecondo and vergogna).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡon.d͡zo/
• Rhymes: -ondzo
• Hyphenation: gón‧zo

gonzo (feminine gonza, masculine plural gonzi, feminine plural gonze)

1. stupid, dumb

   Synonyms: babbeo, fesso, grullo, ingenuo, scemo, sciocco, sempliciotto, sprovveduto, stolto, stupido, tonto

gonzo m (plural gonzi, feminine gonza)

1. simpleton, dolt; dupe

   Synonyms: babbeo, fesso, grullo, ingenuo, minchione, scemo, sciocco, sempliciotto, sprovveduto, stolto, stupido, tonto

• → English: gonzo
• → French: gonze

• Hyphenation: gon‧zo

From Old French gons, from Latin gomphus, from Ancient Greek γόμφος (gómphos), from Proto-Hellenic *gómpʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos.

gonzo m (plural gonzos)

1. hinge (device for the pivoting of a door)

   Synonyms: dobradiça, charneira, quício

   • 1995, José Saramago, Ensaio sobre a cegueira, Caminho:

     Esperavam o ruído do portão ao ser aberto, o guincho agudo dos gonzos por untar, […]

     They waited for the sound of the gate being opened, the shrill squeal of the hinges in need of oil, […]

From Italian gonzo.

gonzo (feminine gonza, masculine plural gonzos, feminine plural gonzas)

1. (journalism) gonzo