gauche
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish *walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)
- Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
- 1836, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, The Outcast and Other Poems[1], The Spirit Court of Practice and Pretence, page 102:
- Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display
In 'good society', to make her way
- 1879, George Meredith, “chapter XLVI”, in The Egoist:
- She looked a trifle gauche, it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is.
- 1895, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 18”, in The Wonderful Visit (Macmillan’s Colonial Library), London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
- "He's a trifle gauche" said Lady Hammergallow, jumping upon the Vicar's attention. "He neither bows nor smiles. He must cultivate oddities like that. Every successful executant is more or less gauche."
- (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
- (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°.
Synonyms edit
- (lacking in social graces): graceless, tactless, unsophisticated, unpolished, gawky
Antonyms edit
- (antonym(s) of "lacking in social graces"): adroit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
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Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology edit
From gauchir (“warp, distort”), a conflation of Old French gauchier (“tread”) (from Frankish *walkijan, *walkan, cognate with English walk) + Old French guenchir (“deviate”) (from Frankish *wenkijan (“to sway, falter”)). Gauche replaced the original word for "left", senestre, in the sixteenth century. Compare Walloon gåtche.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
gauche (plural gauches)
Noun edit
gauche f (plural gauches)
- the left, the left-hand side
Noun edit
gauche m (plural gauches)
- (boxing) a left-hander, a southpaw
Antonyms edit
- (antonym(s) of "left"): droite
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “gauche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Norman edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation edit
Audio (Jersey) (file)
Noun edit
gauche f (plural gauches)