gaudy
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɡɔː.di/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈɡɔ.di/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ˈɡɑ.di/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːdi
Etymology 1[edit]
Origin uncertain; perhaps from gaud (“ornament, trinket”) + -y, perhaps ultimately from Old French gaudir (“to rejoice”).
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[edit]
gaudy (comparative gaudier, superlative gaudiest)
- very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner
- c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:
- Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.
- 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton […], OCLC 38659585:
- 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.
- 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, Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer, 9 January 2005
- 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.
- (obsolete) fun; merry; festive
- c. 1606–1607, 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 606515358, [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 911789798:
- And for my strange petition I will make
Amends hereafter by some gaudy day
- And for my strange petition I will make
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 22, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], OCLC 458431182:
- And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...
Synonyms[edit]
- (excessively showy): tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy
- Thesaurus:gaudy
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Noun[edit]
gaudy (plural gaudies)
- One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
- c. 1386–1390, John Gower, Reinhold Pauli, editor, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, OCLC 827099568:
- A paire of bedes blacke as sable
She toke and hynge my necke about,
Upon the gaudees all without
Was wryte of gold, pur reposer- (please add an English translation of this quote)
Etymology 2[edit]
Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy.
Noun[edit]
gaudy (plural gaudies)
- (Oxford University) A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the long vacation.
Derived terms[edit]
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɔːdi
- Rhymes:English/ɔːdi/2 syllables
- English words suffixed with -y
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Middle English terms with quotations
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- Oxford University English