gormless

WOTD – 7 January 2007    

English

Alternative forms

• gaumless, gawmless

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈɡɔːmləs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

gormless (comparative more gormless, superlative most gormless)

1. (chiefly UK, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or discernment, often implying lack of capacity of will to remedy the condition.
2. (UK) Inexperienced, naïve, innocent to the point of foolishness.

Quotations

• 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXI

  Did I ever look so stupid: so gormless as Joseph calls it?

• 1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda, p4

  But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.

• 1990, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, p171

  There was a sort of gormless unstoppability about him that she found rather fascinating.

• 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 8, The Wedding, Auntie Muriel pg 141

  “Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then. […]”

Synonyms

• (lacking intelligence): dull, slow, stupid
• (inexperienced): inexperienced, naive

Translations

lacking intelligence

• Dutch: onnozel (nl), onhandig (nl)
• French: absurde (fr)

• German: dämlich (de)
• Russian: бестолковый (ru) (bestolkovyj)

naive

• Dutch: naïef (nl), onnozel (nl)

• French: puéril (fr)