goo

See also: Goo, góo, go'o, goo', -góó, and ꞊göö˗

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

American English, attested since 1903, possibly from burgoo (“thick porridge”); alternatively, an alteration of glue.

Noun

goo (usually uncountable, plural goos)

1. (uncountable, informal) Any semi-solid or liquid substance; especially one that is sticky, gummy or slippery, unpleasant, and of vague or unknown composition, such as slime or semen.

   Synonyms: gloop, goop, gunge, gunk; see also Thesaurus:goo

   I stepped in some goo and had a terrible time getting the sticky stuff off my shoes.

2. (figuratively) Excessive, showy sentimentality.

   Synonyms: mawkishness, saccharinity, sugariness

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, “14 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment”, in Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, pages 694–695:

     […] To be really human is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naive and goo-prone and generally pathetic, is to be in some basic interior way forever infantile, some sort of not-quite-right-looking infant dragging itself anaclitically around the map, with big wet eyes and froggy-soft skin, huge skull, gooey drool.

Derived terms

• from goo to you by way of the zoo
• girl goo
• goo ball
• gooey
• gooeyness
• goolike
• grey goo
• man goo

 

Translations

sticky or gummy semi-solid or liquid substance

• Dutch: brij (nl) m
• Estonian: löga
• Finnish: tahma, tökötti (fi), mönjä (fi)
• French: matière poisseuse f mucus (fr) m
• German: Schmiere (de) f, Klebstoff (de) m, (North German, colloquial) Glibber m, (colloquial) Soße (de) f, klebriges Zeug n, Papp m
• Hungarian: ragacs (hu), trutyi (hu), trutymó (hu)
• Italian: melma (it) f
• Japanese: ネバネバしたもの (nebaneba shita mono)
• Polish: glut (pl) m, babranina f
• Portuguese: gosma (pt)
• Russian: слизь (ru) f (slizʹ), (что-либо) вя́зкое (ru) n (vjázkoje), (что-либо) ли́пкое (ru) (lípkoje)
• Serbo-Croatian: ljiga (sh) f
• Sicilian: (if hard to remove) cosa mpicusa/mpiccicusa f, mpastu m; (if dirty) fangu m
• Spanish: pringue (es) m or f
• Swedish: klet (sv) n, kladd (sv) n, smet (sv) n
• Ukrainian: слиз (uk) (slyz), ґлей (glej)

sentimentality

• Dutch: stroperigheid
• French: sentimentalité à l’eau de rose f
• German: (colloquial) Schmalz (de) m, übertriebene Sentimentalität f
• Hungarian: érzelgősség (hu)
• Portuguese: meloso m
• Russian: сентимента́льщина (ru) f (sentimentálʹščina)

Verb

goo (third-person singular simple present goos, present participle gooing, simple past and past participle gooed)

1. (transitive) To apply goo to something.

   They gooed their hair with some fragrant styling product.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic of baby talk.

Noun

goo (plural goos)

1. A noise made by a baby trying to imitate speech.

   The infant's goos and gahs were endearing.

Verb

goo (third-person singular simple present goos, present participle gooing, simple past and past participle gooed)

1. (intransitive) To produce baby talk.

   The baby gooed while daddy made sappy faces at it.

   • 2010, Frances Gaddy Stegall, Rafter T Ranch, page 179:

     The baby gooed but didn't let go; instead he decided he would taste it. Lou quickly tried to get the baby to release his trophy but to no avail.

   • 2013, Susan Meier, A Father for Her Triplets: Her Pregnancy Surprise, page 359:

     The baby gooed. Danny smiled.

See also

• gaga, ga-ga
• goo-goo
• goo goo ga ga

Etymology 3

See go.

Verb

goo

1. Elongated form of go.
   • 2021 August 2, Neil Davidson, “Kyle Lowry era over in Toronto as Raptors great signs with Miami Heat”, in CBC‎^[1]:

     Lowry put out a social media post to his more than 907,000 Twitter followers saying, "Miami Heat X Kyle Lowry" and "Let's Goo!!" followed by five fire emojis.

2. (Northern England, Scotland) Pronunciation spelling of go.
   • 1886, Benjamin Brierley, Cast Upon the World - The Story of a Waif, Heywood, →ISBN, page 218:

     Well, then, things are settled, an' I'll goo an' finish yond pigs off," said my new employer, rising from his chair, and flapping his crush hat upon his head as if he was killing flies.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “goo”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

See also

• moo goo gai pan (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• ogo

Dutch

Noun

goo f (plural gooën)

1. Alternative form of gouw

Anagrams

• oog

Esperanto

Etymology

From Japanese 碁 (go).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡoo]
• Rhymes: -oo
• Hyphenation: go‧o

Noun

goo (accusative singular goon, plural gooj, accusative plural goojn)

1. go (board game)

   Synonym: vejĉio

Manx

Etymology 1

From Old Irish guth, from Proto-Celtic *gutus, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰuHtus, from *ǵʰewH- (“to call on, invoke”).

Noun

goo m (genitive singular goo, plural googhyn)

1. voice
2. word, reputation

Etymology 2

Noun

goo

1. Eclipsed form of coo.

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
goo	ghoo	ngoo
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Middle English

Verb

goo

1. Alternative form of gon (“to go”)

References

p. 1, Arthur; A Short Sketch of his Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century, Frederick Furnivall ed. EETS. Trübner & Co.: London. 1864.