ETYMOLOGY
from Greek γελαστικός (gelastikos), from γελᾶν (to laugh)
EXAMPLE
“…or even exempt it from his unexcepting Censure and Undutiful Reflection against that Right Reverend Father of our Church, not without a Gelastick deference to so great a name, no more than without as high a Conception as possibly conceivable of the unappearing performances of so learned a Prelate…”
From: Athenae Britannicae:
Or, A Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge Writers and Writings
By Myles Davies, 1716
ETYMOLOGY
from gutter + lane
EXAMPLE
“…All goeth down Gutter-lane (A small Lane in the City otherwise Guthurum lane.) Appliable to great Gluttons and Drunkards…”
From: Anglorum Speculum
By George Sandys, 1684
ETYMOLOGY
perhaps a variation of jimp (slender, slim, delicate, graceful, neat)
EXAMPLE
“…Hys wifis, Toppa and Partelot, hym by,
As byrd al tyme that hantis bigamy.
The pantyt povn, pasand with plomys gym,
Kest vp his taill, a provd plesand quheill rym,
Yschrowdyt in hys fedrame brycht and scheyn,
Schapand the prent of Argus hundreth eyn…”
From: Virgil’s Aeneid translated into Scottish verse
By Gavin Douglas, 1513
ETYMOLOGY
from Old Norse glupna (to be downcast);
a root of identical form appears in Old Frisian glûpa, Middle Low German glûpen (to lie in wait for), Dutch gluipen (to watch slily, to sneak), Old Swedish glupa (to gape, swallow), Swedish glupande, Danish glubende (ravenous, fierce);
whether there is any etymological connection is uncertain
ETYMOLOGY
from French gobe-mouches
(from gober (to swallow) + mouche (fly))
PRONUNCIATION
GOB-moosh
EXAMPLE
“…Such a representation the gobes mouches of Florence might have readily magnified into a change of religion.…”
From: Narrative Of A Residence In Algiers
By Edward Blaquière, translation of Filippo Pananti, 1818
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French gorel, gorreau (a pig, hog);
related to Old French gore (sow): of unknown origin.
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“…Crampe that comyth of replycyon fallyth ofte to fatte men and flesshly and well fedde and gorrelles…”
From: Bartholomew de Glanville’s De Proprietatibus Rerum,
Translated by John Trevisa, 1495
ETYMOLOGY
from gad (used to express strong feeling) + zooks (origin unknown)
EXAMPLE
“…Buz. Ile first take tother cup, and then out with’t altogether—And now it comes—If my Mistress do bring him home a bastard, she’s but even with him.
Nat. He has one I warrant. Has he cadzooks?…”
From: The English Moor or the Mock-Marriage,
in Five Nevv Playes, viz. The English Moor. The Love-sick Court. Covent Garden Eeeded. The New Academy. The Queen and Concubine,
By Richard Brome, 1659
ETYMOLOGY
from Goemagot, the greatest of the British giants, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth;
altered after the biblical names Gog and Magog
EXAMPLE
“…Gogmagog was a geant · suiþe gret & strong
Vor aboute an twenti vet · me seiþ he was long …”
From: The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, c1325
ETYMOLOGY
? possibly connected with gig (an eccentric person)
EXAMPLE
“…Hereupon it fell out, after the expiring of a scantling of Weeks, that Master Carvel became as jealous as a Tygar, and entred into a very profound suspition, that his new-married Gixy did keep a Buttock-stirring with others: to prevent which inconveniency, he did tell her many tragical Stories of the total Ruine of several Kingdoms by Adultery…”
From: The Third Book of the Heroick Deeds and Sayings of the good Pantagruel.
By Francois Rabelais
Translated by Thomas Urquhart, 1693
ETYMOLOGY
after Mrs. Grundy, a character mentioned in the play Speed the Plough (1798) by Thomas Morton (1764?-1838), English playwright
EXAMPLE
“…Meantime there is some meaning in having a gentleman and a classic at the head of affairs, who may now and then direct the stream of public bounty to us, poor devils, whom the Grundyites would not only remunerate, but kick out of society as barely respectable…”
From: Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir
Letters 1842-1845
By Alfred Tennyson, 1897
Lexicophilia 