gowk

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English

Etymology 1

From Middle English goke, gowke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰegʰuǵʰ- (“cuckoo”).

Pronunciation

Noun

gowk (plural gowks)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) A cuckoo.
  2. A fool.
    • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Old Mortality:
      "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper.
    • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 83:
      "What does it look like?" "Like...like..." Catweazle made boulder-like gestures in the air, "like a wogle-stone, thou gowk."
    • 1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:
      God has sent me gowks for secretaries.
    • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 303:
      `You daft great gowk, puttin' yerself in the way of harm after all this time out of a war.'
Derived terms

Verb

gowk (third-person singular simple present gowks, present participle gowking, simple past and past participle gowked)

  1. To make foolish; to stupefy.

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain. Likely from Middle English coke, colk (“the core or heart of an apple or onion, pith”), from Old English *colc (“the gullet, esophagus; pit of the stomach; trench, pit, gully”), from Proto-West Germanic *kolk, from Proto-Germanic *kulkaz, *kulukaz (“gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to devour, swallow, gulp; throat, gullet”). Possibly a doublet of coke.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

gowk (plural gowks)

  1. (Geordie) An apple core.
  2. (Geordie, obsolete) The central part of any thing; pith; core.
  3. (dialectal) The hard centre of a boil or sore.
  4. (dialectal) The yolk of an egg.
  5. (dialectal) The inner part of a haystack.

Etymology 3

Compare Norwegian Nynorsk gulka (“to burp, belch”). Compare also Scots cowk (“to strain, retch”), Dutch kolken (“to belch”), German kolken (“to gulp”), dialectal German kölken, kolksen (“to vomit”), Danish kulke (“to gulp”).

Verb

gowk (third-person singular simple present gowks, present participle gowking, simple past and past participle gowked)

  1. (dialectal) To retch; vomit.
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