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”), of Germanic origin, 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/, 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) French: gauche (fr) Georgian: ხეპრე (ka)

German: unbeholfen, linkisch Ido: ne-habila Russian: неуклюжий (ru) Spanish: torpe (es)

Anagrams

• guache

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French

Etymology

From gauchir (“warp, distort”), of Germanic origin, 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 (epicene, 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