different between gawm vs gawk

English

Etymology 1

Noun

gawm (plural gawms)

1. Alternative spelling of gom (foolish person).
   • 1892, The Awkward Squads, in Littell's Living Age, volume 195, page 811:

     "E-y-e-s front ! Och, luk in front av ye, for the love o' marcy, an' don't be bigger gawms than y'are." Again he took up his parade before the squad.

   • 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, page 10:

     The farmer would accuse his son of idleness; the son would retort that his father was a drunken gawm.

   • 2013, Flann O'Brien, O'Dea's Your Man, in Collected Plays and Teleplays ?ISBN, page 417:

     In twenty-wan years in this box I don't believe I've ever pulled down wan of those signal yokes without half-expecting a pint of stout to come out down below somewhere. And isn't it the right gawm I'd look if it did come.

Etymology 2

Verb

gawm (third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of gum (make sticky, or impair the function of)
   • 1909, Eugene Wood, The Merry Yule-Tide, in The New England Magazine, page 438:

     In just about a month to-morrow morning we'll crunch the candy into the rug at every step, and all we touch will be gawmed up and sticky.

   • 1920, The Monitor, page 13:

     A nation cannot get anywhere if it has things gawmed up.

Etymology 3

Verb

gawm (third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Alternative form of gorm (gawk, gape)
   • 1888, W. R. Credland, A Farm in the Fens, in the Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, volume 14, page 267:

     “Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”

   • 1897, J. Carmichael, Man and Beast, in the Monthly Packet, page 392:

     ‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k/
• Rhymes: -??k
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /??k/

Etymology 1

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 ??ac. More at yeke.

Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.

Noun

gawk (plural gawks)

1. A cuckoo.

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

2. 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.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) +? -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).

Verb

gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)

1. To stare or gape stupidly.
2. To stare conspicuously.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stare

Derived terms

• gawker

Translations

References