Take a Gander

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Gary Whitlock in Fallbrook, California.

Hi, Gary.

Well, I was thinking the other day about the phrase to take a gander, and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually even heard it, but I have read it, and wondered how that came to mean to take a look at something.

Okay. That’s a great question.

Do you have geese or animals of any kind ever lived on a farm?

I have lived on a farm, never had geese, but I’ve met up with some, and they’re not very friendly birds.

No, they’re not.

No, if you find a dark alley and there’s honking in it, just walk on by.

Yeah, run away, right.

But, you know, it’s really straightforward. Geese have these necks, and they do this strange craning because of the way their eyes are positioned on their head, and so they have a very characteristic movement of the head.

And so when people are straining their own necks to kind of look over or beyond or they’re in a crowd, right?

Martha’s doing it now.

It looks more like a chicken than a goose, though.

Yeah, I think of geese as they look at something, but I’m not seeing it as something that they’re, at least as when you’re saying, I’m going to take a gander, let’s take a gander. You’re not looking intently at something. You’re kind of, you’re looking at it as something that’s just something I’m going to take a look at, but I don’t have to study it too hard.

I don’t know if I’ve got that right or not, but that’s what it seems like to me.

Well, maybe, but in general, it’s universally agreed among lexicographers and etymologists that the gander comes from the geese. And so maybe it’s not exactly what geese do, but it’s similar to what they do.

You know, they crane their necks, and so do we. And we look kind of silly when we stand on tippy-toe and strain our heads up to look above a crowd just to see what’s happening, right?

Right.

Yeah, but Gary, I think you’re describing the motion very well. I mean, I’ve spent a little time around geese, too, and even when I think about it now, I sort of unconsciously cover my backside.

Oh, because they’re going to nip you, right?

Yeah.

They’re going to goose you, you know?

I don’t want to take a goose at anything.

No, and I don’t want them taking a gander back there.

But, yeah, that’s the idea.

Yeah, it’s straightforward, straight from the male geese.

Okay.

Thanks for calling, Gary.

Okay, well, thank you for your answer.

Thanks a lot, Gary. Bye-bye.

Bye.

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