goshwow

English

Etymology

gosh +‎ wow. Derived from a caption ("Gosh! Wow! Boyohboy! The mosta and the besta!") used in the July 10, 1939 issue of Time magazine, reprinted from a letter in the August 1939 issue of science fiction pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories, in an article about the first World Science Fiction Convention, aka Nycon I, held in New York in July 1939.

Adjective

goshwow (comparative more goshwow, superlative most goshwow)

1. (dated, fandom slang, often derogatory) Of or pertaining to a juvenile overenthusiasm; naive; uncritical.
   • 1967 Spring, Wynn Manners, “Your 5¢ Worth”, in No-Eyed Monster‎^[1], number 11, page 45:

     Pickering's latest article is, at least, readable. It doesn't do much more than say goshwow, I think this film is good (altho in a more reserved and "erudite" manner) and give alotta^[sic] quotes, but it doesn't leave me utterly flabbergasted as did the other two.

   • 1997 May 30, Andy Hooper, “Days of Fandom”, in Apparatchik‎^[2], number 79:

     Rog Ebert remembers: In the editorial of the new Science Fiction Age, Scott Edelman quotes from an interview he conducted (for their sister magazine, Sci-Fi Entertainment, he says) with fannish-wunderkind-turned-Pulitzer-winning-columnist Roger Ebert. Despite rumors that he shuns mention of his fannish roots, Rog talks at some length about his fanzine days, crediting fandom with teaching him to read critically, and still sounding a little goshwow about having his LoCs printed "right next to those of legendary BNFs . . . like Buck and Juanita Coulson, Harry Warner, Harlan Ellison, Ed Gorman, Wilson Tucker and Richard Lupoff."

   • 1997, Ursula K. Le Guin, “Changing Kingdoms”, in Trajectories of the Fantastic, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 9:

     Only the pulpiest goshwow adventure sci-fi ignores the mandates of realism.

2. (dated, fandom slang and computing) Of or pertaining to a sense of wonder; awe inspiring; amazement causing.
   • 1983 December, Stephen Kimmel, “The First Program”, in Creative Computing‎^[3], volume 9, number 12, page 156:

     You have been told how easy it is to write useful programs on your new $200 Goshwow personal computer. Being a good person who always brushes after every meal, you dutifully worked your way through the Basic instruction book—maybe two of them.

   • 1991 Winter, D. S. Black, “Mondo Reality High”, in Processed World‎^[4], number 28, page 55:

     Yet Mondo is so enamored of the gee-whizbang neatness, the goshwow sense of wonder inspired by such technical "innovations" as virtual reality—the understandable dream of finding a universe in a grain of silicon—that I often wonder if they're not showing just a little unseemly haste to leave this stinkin' cesspit of a world behind their television snow and mirror shades.

   • 1992 July 5, Terry Pratchett, “Hi, people”, in alt.fan.pratchett‎^[5] (Usenet), message-ID <memo.507923@cix.compulink.co.uk>:

     My 33mhz 486 is no longer a goshwow machine, Dell having done their usual trick of waiting until I bought it before dropping the price hugely.

   • 1999 September 30, Bev Clark/Steve Gallacci, “Re: Orbital kills”, in rec.aviation.military‎^[6] (Usenet), message-ID <7t0e3m$35t@dfw-ixnews21.ix.netcom.com>:

     Overall, you seem enraputered^[sic] with all the really neat goshwow technology that is still near the edge of sci-fi wishful thinking.

Synonyms

• (overenthusiastic): goshwowboyoboy, overenthusiastic
• (sense of wonder): amazing, wondrous, see also Thesaurus:awesome

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “goshwow”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 80–81.