gormy

gormy

English

WOTD – 5 September 2020

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔːmi/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔɹmi/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)mi

Etymology 1

Either:

• from gorm (“fool; one who is undiscerning”) +‎ -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’);[1] or
• a variant of gaumy (“awkward”), from gaum (“to stare idly or vacantly; to gape, gaze; to be awkward or stupid; a lout; a gaping, idle fellow”)[2] + -y.

Adjective

gormy (not comparable)

1. (Britain, chiefly Northern England, US, chiefly New England) Awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly.

   Synonym: gorming

   • 1990, John Gould, There Goes Maine!: A Somewhat History, Sort of, of the Pine Tree State, New York, N.Y.: Norton, →ISBN, page 1187:

     And not always with finesse — the Lombard clanked and churned, and a man who is like a regular Lombard may be a bit gormy and sometimes apply brute strength when he might do the work easier if he'd stop and think a little.

   • 1990, Maurice Shadbolt, Monday’s Warriors: […], Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 5:

     Kimball was never one to argue with a comrade's eyes and ears, not even those of a gormy jeezer like Connolly.

   • 2009, Stephen King, chapter 23, in Under the Dome: […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 682:

     The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called "a gormy lad."

   • 2010 March, Pat Cunningham, chapter 4, in A London Werewolf in America, [Austin, Tex.]: Siren-BookStrand, →ISBN, page 32:

     Just the sort of place gormy Eugene would pick to hold a family get-together.

Related terms

• gaum
• gaumy
• gawm
• gawming
• gorm
• gorming

 

Translations

awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly — see awkward,‎ clumsy

Etymology 2

From gorm, gaum (“to smear; grime (noun)”) +‎ -y.[3]

Adjective

gormy (not comparable)

1. (Britain, US, chiefly Southern US) Alternative spelling of gaumy (“sticky, smeared with something sticky; grimy”)
   • 1914, Edward [Henry] Peple, The Prince Chap: A Comedy in Three Acts, New York, N.Y.; London: Samuel French, OCLC 1167351406, Act II, page 50:

     The first thing you have got to do is to wash them gormy 'ands [...]

   • 1916 June 22, Abigail Clarke, quoting Edward Everett Hale, “Edward Everett Hale at Harvard College. IV. (1835–39.)”, in The Christian Register, volume 95, number 25, Boston, Mass.: Christian Register Association, OCLC 863543407, page 583, column 1:

     When I bought my tamarinds I eat one or two and then discovered that I had left my handkerchief at home, my hands were a little gormy, so I washed them in Frog Pond.

References

1. “gorm, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972.
2. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GAUM, v.⁴ and sb.³”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, OCLC 81937840, page 578, column 1.
3. Compare B[ennett] W[ood] Green (1899) Word-book of Virginia Folk-speech, Richmond, Va.: W[illia]m Ellis Jones, […], OCLC 1701754, page 165: “Gormy, adj. Smeary; sticky. Gaumy.”

Further reading

• “gaumy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• Sidney Oldall Addy (1891) A Supplement to the Sheffield Glossary (Series C (Original Glossaries); no. 62), volume 22, issue 2, London: […] [F]or the English Dialect Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., OCLC 3297377, page 24.
• John Gould; Lillian Ross (1975) Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads & Wazzats, Camden, Me.: Down East Books, →ISBN, page 114.
• Mildred Jordan Brooks (1992) Southern Stuff: Down-home Talk and Bodacious Lore, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 59: “gormy, adj. Sticky or smeary. “Who wants to pick up a youngun all gormy with butter and ’lasses?””