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The noun guzinter (also gozinter) is a humorous phonetic transcription of the phrase goes into, as originally used at school in arithmetic lessons—cf., for example, “4 guzinter 8 two times” in quotation 2 below.
An allusion to this use of the phrase goes into in arithmetic lessons occurred, for example, in the following from the column Letters of Peeping Tom on Matters of Local and General Interest, published in The Stapleford & Sandiacre News (Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, England) of Saturday 25th April 1925 [page 2, column 5]:
A PROBLEM OF DIVISION.
There was no mathematician present at a meeting of the Long Eaton Council, held on Monday, and that, no doubt, explains the confusion that arose over the election of committees.
It was all a question of whether the Council should divide themselves into two committees of twelve each or three committees of eight each. Now the Council has 24 members, and as all the members in the days of their youth attended school and had the rules of “guzinter” drilled into them, they all knew how many 12’s and how many 8’s make 24. But when it was pointed out that the chairman and vice-chairman are ex-officio members of all committees, leaving only 22 members to be divided up, it put the members in a quandary, and several of them began to calculate furiously.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences that I have found of the noun guzinter (also gozinter):
—Two notes: 1) These early occurrences are all from anecdotes in which an adult asks a schoolboy about his studies. 2) These anecdotes were published in Australian, Canadian, U.S. and British newspapers and magazines:
1-a-: From The Prahran Telegraph (Prahran, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 22nd January 1910 [page 9, column 8]:
“A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE——”
Friend of the Family: And what are you learning at school now, Tommy?
Tommy: Oh, gozinter, chiefly.
Friend of the Family: What’s that? A new language?
Tommy (wearily): No, just gozinter—one gozinter two, two gozinter four, three gozinter six.
1-b-: From the column Fun and Philosophy, published in the Manitoba Morning Free Press (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) of Saturday 22nd January 1910 [page 28, column 3]:
Friend of Family—“And what are you learning at school now, Tommy?”
Tommy—“Oh, Gozinter, chiefly.”
Friend of the Family—What’s that? A new language?”
Tommy (wearily)—“No, just gozinter—one gozinter two; two gozinter four, three gozinter six.”
2-: From the column Fairly Funny, published in The Worker (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Wednesday 16th March 1910 [page 3, column 5]:
Lady Visitor: “What are you studying in school now, Johnnie?”
Johnnie: “Oh, readin’, ’rithmetic, an ’ritin’.”
L.V.: “How far are you along with your arithmetic, Johnnie?”
J.: “We’re studying’ guzinter, now.”
L.V.: “Guzinter, guzinter? Why, what’s that, Johnnie?”
J.: “Aw, don’t you know? Don’t you know about 4 guzinter 8 two times, and 2 guzinter 4, uh?”
In Australian English, the noun guzinter (also gozinter) came to be applied to a schoolteacher. The following is from The Australian Language (Sydney and London: Angus and Robertson Ltd., 1945), by Sidney John Baker (1912-1976) [chapter 6: The City—6. Minor People, page 133]
A schoolteacher is called variously a chalk-and-talker, guzinter (i.e. one “guzinter” two, two “guzinter” four, etc.), a bid or biddy.
The noun guzinter occurred in the sense of a schoolteacher in the following from Jimmy Brockett: Portrait of a Notable Australian (London: Britannicus Liber, 1951), by the Australian short-story writer and novelist Dal Stivens (1911-1997)—as reprinted in 2003 by Sydney University Press [page 43]:
I turned into Derwent Street and there was old Ted Clark coming towards me. Old Ted used to teach me at Glebe Public. We shook hands.
[…]
“How’s the school?” I asked. “Much the same, I suppose?”
“Much the same,” he said. “We carry on.”
[…]
I wanted to ask the old guzinter where all his bright boys were today, but I let it pass.
I have found an interesting use of the noun gozinter in the following from the Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, Alaska, USA) of Wednesday 5th January 1972 [page 16, column 5]:
Foolproof Sounds
The Army teaches its communicators a peculiar language of phonetic pronunciation to use in radio transmissions. The idea is to make it difficult for a listener to misunderstand the words in a message.
Thus, the letters “APC,” which stand for “armored personnel carrier,” come over the air as “Alfa Papa Charlie.”
Numerals, likeswise [sic], have their special foolproof pronunciation. To the radioman they read: Wun, Too, Tree, Fow-er, Fife, Six, Sev-en, Ait, and Nin-er.
All of which reminded a retired military man of the old “Gozinter” poem. When converted to modern radio phonetics it comes out this way:
Too gozinter Fow-er
Fow-er gozinter Ait.
Papa gozinter a bar room
And comes home very late.
Mama gozinter hysterics
And then gozinter bed.
But what gozinter corned beef hash
I can’t get into my head.
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