gormless
adjUK /ˈɡɔːmləs/
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.
1
Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, Of a person Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.
- 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:
- But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda, page 4:
3 more examples
- There was a sort of gormless unstoppability about him that she found rather fascinating.1990, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, page 171:
- Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then.2007 July 21, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Wedding, Auntie Muriel”, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter; 7), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:
- “Don’t just stand there looking gormless. There’s plenty of work to do in the back.”2015, Adele Abbott, Witch Is When Everything Went Crazy, page 33:
- Derived terms
- gormlessly, gormlessness