different between gaudy vs racy

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????.di/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???.di/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /???.di/
• Rhymes: -??di

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; perhaps from gaud (“ornament, trinket”) +? -y, perhaps ultimately from Old French gaudir (“to rejoice”).

Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþ?, *walþij?, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld.

A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.

Adjective

gaudy (comparative gaudier, superlative gaudiest)

1. very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

     The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

   • 2005, Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer, 9 January 2005

     Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.

2. (obsolete) fun; merry; festive

   • And for my strange petition I will make
     Amends hereafter by some gaudy day

   • And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...

Synonyms

• (excessively showy): tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy
• Thesaurus:gaudy

Derived terms

• gaudily
• gaudy night

Translations

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

Etymology 2

Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy.

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.

English

Etymology

race (“having a characteristic taste (of wines, fruits, etc.)”) +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?si/
• Rhymes: -e?si

Adjective

racy (comparative racier, superlative raciest)

1. Mildly risqué.

2. Having a strong flavor indicating origin; of distinct characteristic taste; tasting of the soil.

   Synonyms: fresh, rich

3. (figuratively, by extension) Exciting to the mind by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively.
4. (programming) Involving a data race or a race condition.
   • 2016, Elvira Albert, Ivan Lanese, Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems

     We evaluate the automatic fence insertion procedure by running our tool on a number of different benchmarks containing racy code.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Cary, Cray, cary, cray

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ra.t?s?/

Noun

racy f

1. genitive/dative/locative singular of raca