Green’s Dictionary of Slang

goodyear n.1

[? gouge, a slattern, a soldier’s companion; ult. Fr. argot gouge, a slut; the link between Fr. goujère, a hypothetical derivative of ‘the French word gouje, which signifies a common Camp-Trull’ is considered ‘curiously plausible,’ by the OED, but, it adds, ‘there is no evidence that the definite meaning of ‘pox’ was really intended by any of the writers who used the word; and the alleged etymology is [thus] utterly inadmissible’]

venereal disease, esp. gonorrhoea.

Show quotations
J. Harington Ariosto xliii. 46: And sith it never had done so before, / He marvels what the good yeare now should aile him.
[UK]Shakespeare King Lear V iii: The good yeares/goujeres shall deuoure them, flesh and fell.
[UK]J. Mennes Musarum deliciæ 66: A goodyear on this Fart, quoth gentle Sir Harry. He hath caus'd such an Earth-quake, that my Coal-pits miscarry.