different between staggered vs gauche

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æ??(?)d

Verb

staggered

1. simple past tense and past participle of stagger

   The drunk staggered to the end of the bar before he collapsed.

Adjective

staggered (comparative more staggered, superlative most staggered)

1. Astonished, taken aback.
2. Arranged in a way that is not uniform.

   The U.S. Senate holds staggered elections, with only one third of the seats being filled every two years.

Translations

Anagrams

• raggedest

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish *walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic *walkan? (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?o??/

  (chemistry sense only) IPA^(key): /?a??/, /?o??/

• Rhymes: -???

Adjective

gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)

1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
   • 1836, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, The Outcast and Other Poems, "The Spirit Court of Practice and Pretence". page 102

     Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display

     In 'good society', to make her way

   • 1879, George Meredith, The Egoist, chapter XLVI

     She looked a trifle gauche, it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is.

   • 1895, H.G. Wells, The Wonderful Visit, Chapter 18:

     "He's a trifle gauche" said Lady Hammergallow, jumping upon the Vicar's attention. "He neither bows nor smiles. He must cultivate oddities like that. Every successful executant is more or less gauche."

2. (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
3. (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°.

Synonyms

• (lacking in social graces): graceless, tactless, unsophisticated, unpolished, gawky

Antonyms

• (lacking in social graces): adroit

Translations

Anagrams

• guache

French

Etymology

From gauchir (“warp, distort”), a conflation of Old French gauchier (“tread”) (from Frankish *walkijan, *walkan, cognate with English walk) + Old French guenchir (“deviate”) (from Frankish *wenkijan (“to sway, falter”)). Gauche replaced the original word for "left", senestre, in the sixteenth century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?o?/

Adjective

gauche (plural gauches)

1. left
2. awkward, gawky
3. clumsy

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. the left, the left-hand side

gauche m (plural gauches)

1. (boxing) a left-hander, a southpaw

Antonyms

• (left): droite

Derived terms

Further reading

• “gauche” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. (Jersey) left