obzocky

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

obzocky (comparative more obzocky, superlative most obzocky)

1. (eastern Caribbean English, of a person or thing) Awkward; unattractive; out of place; lopsided; misshapen.
   • 1964, V. S. Naipaul, "The Baker's Story" in The Kenyon Review, vol. 26, no. 3 (Summer), p. 470:

     Look at me. Black as the Ace of Spades and ugly to match. . . . I catch sight of the obzocky black face in one of those fancy mirrors that these expensive hotels have all over the place, as if to spite people like me.

   • 2004, "Jeffrey Hinds comes up with a Barbadian word to describe someone who's unattractive," Voices at www.bbc.co.uk (retrieved 25 Mar 2008):

     There's also something as well that describes some person who may not be ugly, may not be very ugly facially but there's something about them that's ungainly. They're not handsome, they're not um, they're .. let's say they're - they're awkward, they're awkward-looking and that's a word that I think is probably old-time English word as well but we say obzocky. Yes, that's the Bajan word, obzocky!

   • 2004 December 24, Debbie Jacob, “My wishes for 2005”, in Trinidad Guardian online, retrieved 25 March 2008:

     I no longer get an ounce of comfort from seeing those obzocky police vans that could pass for foreign ice cream trucks.