Fanfare! I learned a new word.

[Amber]

I can't imagine why it fell out of use. I can't wait to use it in a sentence.

gormless

 

[Richard Turner]

I can't imagine why it fell out of use. I can't wait to use it in a sentence.

gormless

Didn't know it had fallen out of use!

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Use it frequently, always have. Often in reference to the youth of today.

 

[Amber]

Didn't know it had fallen out of use!

Oh. It must be Americans who don't use it. Maybe we never used it. Whoops.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

When Il Matrimonio was a little boy, his father said to him one day, 'don't be so gormless.'
Poor Il Matrimonio asked 'what is 'gorm'?'

Quite.

c.1746, "wanting sense," a British dialectal word, from gome "notice, understanding" (c.1200), from Old Norse gaumr "care, heed," of unknown origin; + -less. Slang definitions & phrases for gormless.

 

[Amber]

When Il Matrimonio was a little boy, his father said to him one day, 'don't be so gormless.'
Poor Il Matrimonio asked 'what is 'gorm'?'

Quite.

c.1746, "wanting sense," a British dialectal word, from gome "notice, understanding" (c.1200), from Old Norse gaumr "care, heed," of unknown origin; + -less. Slang definitions & phrases for gormless.

This made me laugh.

I like the way the word sounds because it sounds like what it means.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It does, doesn't it?

 

[Geoff]

Ah yes, Gormless was a word very much used by my father in the 70s, to describe my teenage persona and the music I listened to!

 

[KateESal]

It's an excellent word. As mentioned above, it's still in use in the UK, but perhaps less so than it was a decade or so ago. I'm certainly pleased to be reminded of it.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Oh yes. Top of the Pops was gormless. UNTIL Blondie, when it suddenly and mysteriously transformed by alchemy to become family viewing, stepfather happily wiggling his toes in his socks as he hummed along with Heart of Glass. It gave me a fit of the giggles one evening and I was sent to my room for laughing at his singing, but it wasn't that I was laughing at, lol.

www.truetarottales.com

 

[KateESal]

Ah yes, Top of the Pops.

<wallows in a happy swamp of nostalgia>

 

[Marc Joan]

Gormless is one of those interesting words which doesn't have an obvious opposite. There's a good treatment of the subject here: Words that ought to have opposites, but don’t

 

[Marc Joan]

By the way, Amber, you might like this thread: New word!

 

[Andrew Okey]

When Il Matrimonio was a little boy, his father said to him one day, 'don't be so gormless.'
Poor Il Matrimonio asked 'what is 'gorm'?'

Quite.

c.1746, "wanting sense," a British dialectal word, from gome "notice, understanding" (c.1200), from Old Norse gaumr "care, heed," of unknown origin; + -less. Slang definitions & phrases for gormless.

Controversially, I've seen reference to another explanation for this word. Which is that 'gorm' has the same route (indeed, the same sound) as "worm", which is a word that at one time was equally applied to things we still call worms, and those we call snakes (hence the native British Slow Worm). Snakes are traditionally viewed as wise (though not necessarily in a good way..), cunning etc and hence to be gormless = wormless, means you don't have much native cunning.

Meanwhile, in conversation yesterday my wife accidentally invented a new word; "obnoxionable" - presumably this is all the worst bits of obnoxious and objectionable. Luckily, one of the things I'm working on right now is a book set in the year 2700, and on the basis that language will have changed a bit by then, I reckon I have licence to use it.

 

[Marc Joan]

Another story is that 'slow worm' in fact is derived from 'slay worm', because of their eating habits.

 

[Amber]

By the way, Amber, you might like this thread: New word!

Oh yeah ... I remember it now. I forgot about that thread.

 

[Amber]

Ah yes, Gormless was a word very much used by my father in the 70s, to describe my teenage persona and the music I listened to!

How unoriginal of him. But maybe not in the 70s.

 

[Amber]

Gormless is one of those interesting words which doesn't have an obvious opposite. There's a good treatment of the subject here: Words that ought to have opposites, but don’t

How did you know? Are you psychic?

I discovered the word 'gormless' in a description of Jeeves and Wooster -- which I discovered this week and like very much. The opening scene is sort of brilliant, with Hugh Laurie walking around with slack mouth and unfocused eyes.

 

[Amber]

Another story is that 'slow worm' in fact is derived from 'slay worm', because of their eating habits.

A very interesting creature. It's a legless lizard. So, not a snake. It gives birth to live young. And it's super ugly.

 

[KateESal]

I'm rather fond of slow worms. And sea horses. But my favourite creatures are probably alpacas. Those eyes...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I once accidentally visited an alpaca stud farm. Long story. Anyway, drove into the yard and all these alpacas came running out of the barn to see what was happening. Big ones, little ones, all colours, and a pack of farm dogs ran out with them too, all together. Such a funny sight!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Another story is that 'slow worm' in fact is derived from 'slay worm', because of their eating habits.

Not 'sloe' worms on account of their drinking habits. I think they're rather dapper.

 

[Geoff]

We lived at the bottom of a railway embankment when I was small, which was inhabited by slow worms and lizards. If you tried to catch them they would sometimes detach their tails as a decoy, while they escaped. Them were days ....

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I once lived in a house in Saltash, Cornwall, which had soggy ground at the bottom of the garden, the remains of a stream that had been largely buried by landscaping work when the estate was built. It was a paradise for puffball mushrooms and slowworms. My cat sometimes caught these legless lizards, causing them to detach the end of their tails, which distracted her enough that they could make their escape. I'll never forget coming home to find a still twitching tail end on the hallway carpet! I searched the house for the rest of the slowworm, but it must have slithered away.