gauche

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English

WOTD – 20 April 2006

Etymology

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

Adjective

gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)

  1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
    • 1836, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, The Outcast and Other Poems‎, 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."
  2. (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
  3. (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°.

Synonyms

Antonyms

  • (antonym(s) of "lacking in social graces"): adroit

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

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

Adjective

gauche (plural gauches)

  1. left
  2. awkward, gawky
  3. clumsy

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

  1. the left, the left-hand side

Noun

gauche m (plural gauches)

  1. (boxing) a left-hander, a southpaw

Antonyms

  • (antonym(s) of "left"): droite

Derived terms

Further reading

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Jersey)(file)

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

  1. (Jersey) left
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