gooseneck

English

Etymology

goose +‎ neck

Noun

gooseneck (plural goosenecks)

1. (often attributive) Anything with a slender curved shape, resembling the neck of a goose, such as the shaft of some lamps.

   A gooseneck lamp can be swiveled around an object, allowing a good examination of all its surfaces.

   • 1961, James S. Holton, Sound Language Teaching: The State of the Art Today, page 77:

     The gooseneck microphone. Mounted to the desk or to the side wall of the booth, the gooseneck offers a limited degree of flexibility for height and depth adjustment of the microphone.

2. (nautical) The swivel connection on a sailboat located near the bottom of the mast that the boom attaches to. When a sailboat performs a tack or a jibe the gooseneck swings the boom from one side of the boat to the other.
3. Short for gooseneck barnacle.

Related terms

• gooseneck barnacle
• gooseneck pediment

Translations

anything shaped like a goose's neck

• Finnish: joutsenkaula
• German: Schwanenhals (de) m
• Swedish: svanhals (sv) c

swivel connection on a sailboat for the boom to attach to the mast

• Finnish: puominivel
• French: vit-de-mulet (fr) m
• German: Lümmelbeschlag m, Lümmel (de) m