donkey

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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. 2
   noun

   A sailor's storage chest.

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   domestic beast of burden descended from the African wild ass

4. 4
   noun

   the symbol of the Democratic Party

5. 5
   noun

   A stubborn person.

6. 6
   noun

   A fool.

7. 7
   noun

   A small auxiliary engine.

8. 8
   noun

   A box or chest, especially a toolbox.

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…