A simpleton. The word appears as Gonnie, a. 1580: N.E.D.
1837–40. That are Sheriff was a goney.—Haliburton, ‘The Clockmaker,’ p. 139. (N.E.D.)
1843. How the goney swallowed it all.—‘Sam Slick in England,’ chap. xxi.
a. 1855. A stupid fellow, a dolt, a boot-jack, an ignoramus, is called here a gonus.—Dartmouth Mag., iv. 116 (Hall’s ‘College Words,’ p. 229).
