gormless means lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish. It carries an Arena rating of 1733, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gormless ranks #2 of 7 for Ghost Positives, #167 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #469 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,498 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
gormless is pronounced /ˈɡɔːmləs/.
Why “gormless” is a great word
Lacking intelligence, sense, or understanding; foolishly inattentive. It derives from dialectal English 'gaum' ("heed, attention") + '-less' ("without"), from Old Norse 'gaumr', from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō ("heed, attention"); the intrusive 'r' is a vowel-lengthening device in some English dialects. Unlike "vacant," which suggests a momentarily blank slate, or "obtuse," which implies a stubborn slowness to comprehend, *gormless* denotes an enduring, inherent absence of wit or awareness. It is the face of a man staring at a pulled lever long after the train has departed, the posture of one who has just asked a question answered in full three minutes prior, and the dull, uncomprehending eyes that follow a falling spoon as if it were a meteorite—a portrait of a consciousness not so much troubled as perpetually unarrived.
Etymology
From dialectal English gaum (“heed, attention”) + -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“heed, attention”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.
adj
- Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.e.g.“Did I ever look so stupid: so gormless as Joseph calls it?” — 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXI, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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