gauche

English

WOTD – 20 April 2006    

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ɡəʊʃ/, X-SAMPA: /g@US/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊʃ

Adjective

gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)

1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
   • "Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display" — Samuel Griswold (1793-1860)
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

awkward, bumbling

• Chinese: 粗魯的 (cūlǔde)
• Estonian: taktitu (et)
• Finnish: kömpelö (fi), moukkamainen (fi), tahditon (fi)
• French: gauche (fr)
• Georgian: ხეპრე (ka) (xepre)

• German: unbeholfen, linkisch
• Ido: ne-habila
• Maori: tāhapa (mi)
• Russian: неуклюжий (ru) (neukljužij)
• Spanish: torpe (es)

Anagrams

• guache

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French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡoʃ/

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

Adjective

gauche (masculine and feminine, plural gauches)

1. awkward, gawky
2. left

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

• gaucher
• gauchard

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Jèrriais

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. left