Brit., Informal slow-witted; stupid
Origin of gormless
altered from dialect, dialectal gaumless from gaum, gome, care from Middle English gome from Old Norse gaum, akin to Old English gieme, care, Gothic gaumjan, to heedgormless
gorm·lessWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"gormless." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless>.
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gormless. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless
gormless
adjective
Chiefly BritishLacking intelligence or vitality; stupid or dull.
Origin of gormless
From dialectal gawm sense from Middle English gome notice from Old Norse gaumrTHE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"gormless." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless>.
APA Style
gormless. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless
Adjective
(comparative more gormless, superlative most gormless)
- (chiefly UK, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or discernment, often implying lack of capacity of will to remedy the condition.
- (UK) Inexperienced, naïve, innocent to the point of foolishness.
Origin
From English dialectal gaum (“understanding”) + -less (“without”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“understand”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"gormless." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless>.
APA Style
gormless. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/gormless
