gremlin

English

WOTD – 7 June 2022

An American World War II (c. 1942–1943) workplace safety poster featuring gremlins (sense 1.2).

Etymology

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested:

• A variant of goblin.
• From Irish gruaimín (“gloomy little person”); or from Dutch gremmelen (“to soil, stain; to spoil”), or griemelen, grimmelen (“(obsolete) to abound, teem; to swarm”), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary there is little evidence for such derivations.

The word was popularized, especially in the United States, by the children’s novel The Gremlins (1943) by the British author Roald Dahl (1916–1990), in which gremlins sabotage Royal Air Force aircraft in revenge for the destruction of their forest home to make way for an aircraft factory; the creatures later join forces with the British to fight the Nazis.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɛmlɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɛmlən/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grem‧lin

Noun

gremlin (plural gremlins)

1. (originally British, aviation, Royal Air Force slang) [from 1920s]
   1. (obsolete) A contemptible person.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonentity

   2. (mythology) An imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined, for example, to damage or dismantle machinery.
      • 1963, Arthur C Clarke, chapter 8, in Glidepath, New York: Simon and Schuster, pages 72-73:

        Like Abominable Snowmen, gremlins have never actually been seen; but nobody who works with electronic gear doubts the existence of these mischievous and elusive entities. There are too many malfunctions and failures that can have no other explanation.

      • 2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34:

        Crucial time was saved by the fact Nexus didn't require a Transport & Works Act. Nevertheless, other gremlins kept raising their heads.

2. (by extension)
   1. Any mysterious, unknown source of mischief or trouble, or the problem created thereby.

      Synonyms: bug, glitch, hitch

      We rechecked everything, and we suspect gremlins in the database.

   2. (surfing, skateboarding, slang) A young, inexperienced surfer or skateboarder, regarded as a nuisance. [from 1960s]

      Synonyms: grem, gremmie, gremmy, grommet

Derived terms

• gremmie, gremmy
• gremlinesque
• gremlinology
• gremlinologist
• misprint gremlin
• typo gremlin

Translations

imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery

• Bulgarian: гремлин (gremlin), гном (bg) m (gnom)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 葛雷姆林 (géléimǔlín)

• Finnish: riiviö (fi), pikkupiru
• Greek: καλικάντζαρος (el) m (kalikántzaros)
• Japanese: グレムリン
• Korean: 그렘린 (geuremnin)
• Lithuanian: gremlinas
• Marathi: ग्रेमलिन m (gremlin)
• Russian: гремлин (ru) m (gremlin)
• Ukrainian: гре́млін (hrémlin)

any mysterious, unknown source of mischief or trouble, or the problem created thereby

• Finnish: häikkä (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Fehlerteufel m, Kobold (de) m

young, inexperienced surfer, seen as being a nuisance

• Finnish: keltanokka (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• gremlin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gremlin (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• merling, mingler