A gander is a male goose. An angry gander, the gander guards the nest, geese and ganders.
The male is larger and noisier than the goose and guards the nest, which is why ganders have a reputation for chasing people. Take a gander is informal for have a look, from the way a goose stretches its neck out to see. Note what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, meaning what applies to one should apply to the other — a proverb about fairness between the sexes.
1nounganderA male goose.
“The gander hissed and chased us away from the geese and their goslings.”
2nounlookA look, in informal use.
“Come and have a gander at the new car I've bought.”
gander is a bird.
Old English gandra comes from a root that also gives goose and gannet. The sense of a look comes from the bird stretching its neck to see.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰh₂éns — goose
Proto-Germanic
*ganzô — gander
Proto-West Germanic
*ganʀō
Old English
gandra
Middle English
gandre
English, today
gander
Built from
From Middle English gandre, from Old English gandra, ganra (“gander”), from Proto-West Germanic ganʀō, from Proto-Germanic ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”). The meaning "a look" is derived from the image of craning one's neck like a goose. The meaning 'a man apart from his wife' is derived from a concept of a grass widower, and of calling a husband a goose. 2 Cognate with Dutch gander (“gander”), Low German Gander, Ganner (“gander”), dialectal German Gandert (“gander”), German Ganter (“gander”), Norwegian gasse (“gander”), Icelandic gassi (“gander”). Compare also Lithuanian gañdras (“stork”). Related to goose, gannet.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Farm & Countryside