gaudy
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡɔː.di/
ipa: /ˈɡɔ.di/
ipa: /ˈɡɑ.di/
rhymes: -ɔːdi
Forms: form: gaudier
form: gaudiest
Etymology: From Middle English gaudi, from Old French gaudie, from Medieval Latin gaudia. equivalent to gaud (“ornament, trinket”) + -y.
Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþō, *walþijō, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld.
A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.
Senses: examples: text: Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
text: Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.
ref: 1721, [Colley] Cibber, The Refusal; or, The Ladies Philosophy: A Comedy. […], London: […] B[arnaby Bernard] Lintot, […]; W[illiam] Mears, […]; and W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 2:
text: The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: A faded, and an ancient dragon he was; and many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of gray.
ref: 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19:
text: A large gaudy, flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume.
ref: 1887, Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker:
text: Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.
ref: 2005 January 9, Thomas Hauser, Marilyn Cole Lownes, “How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring”, in The Observer:
glosses: Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
examples: text: Let's have one other gaudy night.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene xiii]:
text: And for my strange petition I will make
Amends hereafter by some gaudy day
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...
ref: 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Fun; merry; festive.
Synonyms: sense: excessively showy
word: tawdry
sense: excessively showy
word: flashy
sense: excessively showy
word: garish
sense: excessively showy
word: kitschy
word: bedizened
word: blatant
word: blingish
word: brash
word: catchpenny
word: chichi
word: chintzy
word: crass
word: crude
word: flaunting
word: florid
word: flossy
word: froufrou
word: gauche
word: gaudy
word: gay
word: glaring
word: gross
word: gussied up
word: hideous
word: loud
word: meretricious
word: obtrusive
word: ostentatious
word: pizazzy
word: pretentious
word: ritzy
word: raffish
word: showy
word: snazzy
word: splendiferous
word: tacky
word: tasteless
word: tinselly
word: too much
word: unbecoming
word: untasteful
word: vain
word: whorish
word: zesty
Hypernyms: word: excessive
Derived terms: gaudify
gaudily
gaudiness
ungaudy
Related terms: word: multicolored