gormy
English
WOTD – 5 September 2020
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡɔːmi/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (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)
- (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)
- (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
- “gorm, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972.
- 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.
- 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?””