gawk
Appearance
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ɡɔːk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ɡɑk/
- Rhymes: -ɔːk
Etymology 1
[edit]From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac.
Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.
Noun
[edit]gawk (plural gawks)
- A cuckoo.
- A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.
- 1855, Thomas Carlyle, The Prinzenraub, Westminster Review:
- A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]stupid or clumsy person
Etymology 2
[edit]Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) + -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).[1]
Verb
[edit]gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)
- To stare or gape stupidly.
- To stare conspicuously.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stare
- (colloquial, vulgar) To suck.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to stare or gape stupidly
|
to stare conspicuously
References
[edit]- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “gawk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔːk
- Rhymes:English/ɔːk/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms suffixed with -k
- English verbs
- English colloquialisms
- English vulgarities
- en:Cuckoos
- en:People