gaudy

English

WOTD – 7 November 2010

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔː.di/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔ.di/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑ.di/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːdi

Etymology 1

From Middle English gaudi, from Old French gaudie, from Medieval Latin gaudia. equivalent to gaud (“ornament, trinket”) +‎ -y.

Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþō, *walþijō, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld.

A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.

Adjective

gaudy (comparative gaudier, superlative gaudiest)

1. Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.

   • 1721, [Colley] Cibber, The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy: A Comedy. […], London: […] B[arnaby Bernard] Lintot, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; and W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 2:

     Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19:

     A faded, and an ancient dragon he was; and many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of gray.

   • 1887, Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker:

     A large gaudy, flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume.

   • 2005 January 9, Thomas Hauser, Marilyn Cole Lownes, “How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring”, in The Observer:

     Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.

   • 2007 March 16, Capcom Production Studio 4, quoting Trilo, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Europe: Capcom, →OCLC, Nintendo DS, scene: Part 3: Investigation, Circus Entrance, level/area: Turnabout Big Top:

     Not to mention he was draped in those gaudy symbols.

2. (obsolete) Fun; merry; festive.
   • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene xiii]:

     Let's have one other gaudy night.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:

     And for my strange petition I will make
     Amends hereafter by some gaudy day

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

     And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...

Synonyms

• (excessively showy): tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy
• Thesaurus:gaudy

Derived terms

• gaudify
• gaudily
• gaudiness
• ungaudy

Translations

very showy or ornamented

• Azerbaijani: zövqsüz, səliqəsiz
• Bulgarian: ярък (bg) (jarǎk), крещящ (bg) (kreštjašt), безвкусен (bg) (bezvkusen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 俗麗 / 俗丽 (súlì), 俗艷 / 俗艳 (súyàn), 花哨 (zh) (huāshao), 花俏 (zh) (huāqiào)

• Czech: nevkusný, křiklavý, nápadný (cs)
• Dutch: ordinair (nl), opzichtig (nl), opvallend (nl), schreeuwlelijk (nl), schel (nl), bont (nl)
• Esperanto: malŝika
• Finnish: pramea (fi), kruusattu
• French: voyant (fr), criard (fr), surfait (fr), kitsch (fr), vulgaire (fr)
• Galician: chamativo m, charro
• Georgian: მყვირალა (mq̇virala), ფერადოვანი (peradovani), უგემოვნო (ugemovno)
• German: knallig, grell (de), protzig (de), kitschig (de), aufsehenerregend (de), knallbunt, farbenprächtig, schreiend (de), pompig, aufgetakelt (de)
• Hungarian: cifra (hu), csicsás (hu), feltűnő (hu), hivalkodó (hu), tarkabarka (hu), csiricsáré (hu), ízléstelen (hu), rikító (hu)
• Irish: gairéadach, scéiniúil, taibhseach, spiagaí, mórthaibhseach
• Italian: chiassoso (it), vistoso (it), sgargiante (it), appariscente (it), pacchiano (it) m
• Japanese: どぎつい (ja) (dogitsui), 派手な (ja) (はでな, hade-na), けばけばしい (ja) (kebakebashii), あくどい (ja) (akudoi)
• Manx: ard-ghaaoil
• Plautdietsch: bunt
• Polish: jarmarczny (pl)
• Portuguese: espalhafatoso (pt), vistoso (pt) m, chamativo (pt)
• Romanian: împopoțonat (ro) m, înzorzonat (ro) m, kitsch (ro)
• Russian: цвета́стый (ru) (cvetástyj), крича́щий (ru) (kričáščij), безвку́сный (ru) (bezvkúsnyj), аляпова́тый (ru) (aljapovátyj)
• Spanish: llamativo (es), vistoso (es), sobrecargado (es), vulgar (es), feúcho, chillón (es), hortera (es)
• Swedish: prålig (sv)
• Tagalog: jologs
• Tibetan: ཧར་པོ (har po)
• Turkish: cicili bicili, şatafatlı (tr), şinanay (tr)

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. (archaic) One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
   • 1894, James Hamilton Wylie, History of England under Henry the Fourth, volume 2, pages 356–7:

     In 1458, the owner of the precious book, which had been taken from the martyr’s body at the block, left a rosary of 50 coral beads with gold gaudies, to his “beloved, most blessed Saint Richard Scrope,” to help in his canonization, with a prayer to God that it might be granted of His great grace.

   • 1919, Frederic William Moorman, Plays of the Ridings‎^[1], pages 8–9:

     The circling year was to him like the rosary over which he recited his aves and paternosters; the “gaudies” or larger beads were the holidays set at regular intervals along the string, […]

   • 1952 [1387–1400], Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales, page 29:

     She wore a coral trinket on her arms, / A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, / Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen […]

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy and jo.

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. (Oxford University) A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally during the long vacation.
   • 1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night:

     And since then, Mary had married and scarcely been heard of; except that she had haunted the College with a sick persistence, never missing an Old Students’ Meeting or a Gaudy.

Derived terms

• gaudy night