# gormy
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɡɔːmi/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈɡɔɹmi/
* Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)mi

### Etymology 1

Either:
* from gorm (“fool; one who is undiscerning”) +‎ -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’); or
* a variant of gaumy (“awkward”), from gaum (“to stare idly or vacantly; to gape, gaze; to be awkward or stupid; a lout; a gaping, idle fellow”) + -y.

#### Adjective

gormy (not comparable)
* (British, chiefly Northern England, US, chiefly New England) Awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly.
    Synonym: gorming
** 1990, John Gould, There Goes Maine!: A Somewhat History, Sort of, of the Pine Tree State, New York, N.Y.: Norton, →ISBN, page 1187:And not always with finesse — the Lombard clanked and churned, and a man who is like a regular Lombard may be a bit gormy and sometimes apply brute strength when he might do the work easier if he'd stop and think a little.
** 1990, Maurice Shadbolt, Monday’s Warriors: […], Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 5:Kimball was never one to argue with a comrade's eyes and ears, not even those of a gormy jeezer like Connolly.
** 2009, Stephen King, chapter 23, in Under the Dome: […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 682:The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called "a gormy lad."
** 2010 March, Pat Cunningham, chapter 4, in A London Werewolf in America, [Austin, Tex.]: Siren-BookStrand, →ISBN, page 32:Just the sort of place gormy Eugene would pick to hold a family get-together.

##### Related terms

* gaum
* gaumy
* gawm
* gawming
* gorm
* gorming

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From gorm, gaum (“to smear; grime (noun)”) +‎ -y.

#### Adjective

gormy (not comparable)
* (British, US, chiefly Southern US) Alternative spelling of gaumy (“sticky, smeared with something sticky; grimy”)
** 1914, Edward [Henry] Peple, The Prince Chap: A Comedy in Three Acts, New York, N.Y., London: Samuel French, →OCLC, act II, page 50:The first thing you have got to do is to wash them gormy 'ands [...]
** 1916 June 22, Abigail Clarke, quoting Edward Everett Hale, “Edward Everett Hale at Harvard College. IV. (1835–39.)”, in The Christian Register, volume 95, number 25, Boston, Mass.: Christian Register Association, →OCLC, page 583, column 1:When I bought my tamarinds I eat one or two and then discovered that I had left my handkerchief at home, my hands were a little gormy, so I washed them in Frog Pond.

### References

* ↑ “gorm, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972.
* ↑ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GAUM, v.$^4$ and sb.$^3$”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 578, column 1.
* ↑ Compare B[ennett] W[ood] Green (1899) Word-book of Virginia Folk-speech, Richmond, Va.: W[illia]m Ellis Jones, […], →OCLC, page 165: “Gormy, adj. Smeary; sticky. Gaumy.”

### Further reading

* “gaumy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* Sidney Oldall Addy (1891) A Supplement to the Sheffield Glossary (Series C (Original Glossaries); no. 62), volume 22, number 2, London: […] [F]or the English Dialect Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 24.
* John Gould, Lillian Ross (1975) Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads & Wazzats, Camden, Me.: Down East Books, →ISBN, page 114.
* Mildred Jordan Brooks (1992) Southern Stuff: Down-home Talk and Bodacious Lore, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 59: “gormy, adj. Sticky or smeary. “Who wants to pick up a youngun all gormy with butter and ’lasses?””