Etymology From Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel, diminutive of gans (“goose”).
1
Dated, Slang Synonym of catamite: a young man kept by an elder as a (usually passive) homosexual partner.
The boy’s eyes […] ran over Spade’s body from shoulders to knees […] “Another thing,” Spade repeated, glaring at the boy: “Keep that gunsel away from me while you’re making up your mind. I’ll kill him […] ”1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, [p. http://books.google.com/books?id=1uVajyyVaVkC&pg=RA1-PA13 13]
2
Dated, Slang Synonym of bottom: a passive partner in a male homosexual relationship.
3
Dated, Slang Synonym of bitch: a man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship.
Synonyms
male homosexual
gunsel
noun
Etymology By misunderstanding of the 1929 Maltese Falcon quotation above (1.1) (which survived in a popular 1941 film adaptation). The novel was originally serialized in a magazine, Black Mask, whose editor refused to allow vulgarities. Hammett used the word gunsel knowing that the editor would likely misunderstand it as relating to gun, and therefore allow it.
1
A gun-carrying hoodlum or other criminal.
There's somebody comin. I think it's that gunsel.1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN:
The two gunsels waited for him on each side of the doorway, gun-hands bulging in their coat pockets.1944, Brett Halliday, Murder and the Married Virgin, →ISBN: