gomeral

English

Alternative forms

• gomeril

Etymology

Diminutive (by way of -rel) of Middle English gōme (“man, warrior, husband, male servant”), Old English guma (“male, hero”), from Proto-Germanic *gumô (“man, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“man, person”). More at groom.

Noun

gomeral (plural gomerals)

1. (chiefly Scotland, now rare) Fool, simpleton.
   • 1856, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art:

     [...] to the apparent delectation of immense audiences of gaping gomerals, but to the intense disgust of all sensible people.

   • 1875, The Story of Valentine, and his Brother, chapter XXXIX, in The Living Age, volume 124, page 563:

     "But, you gomeral, you belong to my class, and not to your own!" said the old lord, feeling, with a mixture of pain and amusement and impatience, his own ignorance before the superior and melancholy knowledge of life possessed by this boy.

   • 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Tee’d Ball”, in Catriona, London, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 221:

     The same faithful gomeral is to despatch this letter by the express along with those of the wiseacres, so that you may hear Tom Fool in company with Solomon.

Anagrams

• glomera