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Donkey
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"
- 2 domestic beast of burden descended from the African wild ass; patient but stubborn wordnet
- 3 A stubborn person.
- 4 the symbol of the Democratic Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874 wordnet
- 5 A fool.
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- 6 A small auxiliary engine.
- 7 A box or chest, especially a toolbox. dated, slang
- 8 A bad poker player. slang
- 9 A sailor's storage chest. UK
"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."
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).
See also for "donkey"
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