Goodies

How to spell goodies

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce goodies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does goodies mean?

1. nounAttractive or desirable things, especially sweets, treats, or small gifts.
2. nounThe good or heroic characters in a story, as opposed to the villains.

Goodies in a sentence

• The party bags were stuffed with goodies for every child.

• In the old westerns the goodies always wore the white hats.

• She hid the festive goodies on the top shelf until the holidays.

• My son cheers loudly whenever the goodies defeat the villains.

Where does goodies come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is an informal plural built straight from the everyday English adjective 'good', which descends from the Old English 'god', meaning suitable, virtuous, or of high quality, a word shared with the wider Germanic family. The cosy ending '-ie' (also spelled '-y') is a diminutive and affectionate suffix that English speakers have long added to words to make them sound homely and small, as in 'doggie' or 'sweetie'. Joined to 'good', it produced 'goody', a noun for a desirable little thing, especially something nice to eat, recorded from around the eighteenth century. The plural 'goodies' then became the natural form for a collection of treats or attractive items. A separate but related strand of British usage turned 'goodies' into a playful word for the heroes or virtuous characters of a story, set against the 'baddies'. The spelling trap is simply remembering that the 'y' of 'goody' turns into 'ie' before the plural '-s'.

How the word is built

• good (adjective root)
• -ie (familiar/diminutive suffix)
• -s (plural)