gom meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

gom

noun

Etymology Borrowed from Irish gám (“booby, dolt”).

Ireland A foolish person.

“ Ye don’t how how to dhrive a mothor car ! ” shouted Miles, losing his temper completely. “ What a gom ye are ! ”1917, Mary Brigid Pearse, The Murphys of Ballystack, Dublin: M.H. Gill, page 139:
Fluther: ... You must think Fluther's a right gom.1926, Seán O'Casey, The Plough and the Stars, act II, page 137:

3 more examples

And that's the why I made up my mind to go out to Willie Hill's. To stand my ground in front of that little minx. Because I felt, to tell the God's truth, that little Lorna Lovegrove, out in Willie Hill's, was making a right gom out of me.2007, John Maher, The Luck Penny, page 145:
He had a sinking feeling that he'd made a right gom of himself, hanging onto her until the last before she departed […]2013, Outrageous Pride, →ISBN:
"Yeah! She's a right gom! Sister Eleanor probably got her an old-age pensioner to keep her company for the Christmas!"2014, Martha Long, Ma, I'm Gettin Meself a New Mammy, →ISBN:

intj

Etymology Minced oath.

There's a Lad, too, from York— but tho' he's a strange elf, / By gom! I respect him as much as myself,1804, an entry in the Theatrical Journal of The European Magazine: And London Review, volume 45, page 373
O dang it, Roger, did 'e ever see sich a sight afore? My gom! what a glorious lumination like! My goles! what a mort of gentry-folk!1829, “The Humours of Vauxhall”, in The Universal Songster, Or Museum of Mirth, volume 2, page 164:

2 more examples

"l'll drink as much cider as you 'plase, but by gom, sir, you munna come here to bork the trees over again."1861, The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, volumes 9-10, page 36:
Robert took courage : "Eh, by gom, no. It wasn't hereabouts."1908, Edmund Mackenzie Sneyd-Kynnersley, H. M. I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H. M. Inspectors of Schools, page 224: