This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
gazump
al desko
grinagog
pot-valor
gazunder

Next week’s theme
Which came first: the noun or the verb?

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(guh-ZUHN-duhr)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To reduce the amount of an offer after it has been accepted by the seller.

ETYMOLOGY:

A blend of gazump + under. Earliest documented use: 1988.

NOTES:

To gazump is to raise the price after accepting an offer from a buyer, but buyers are not always angels. Sometimes a buyer reduces the offer, just before signing the contract. These typically happen in the housing market. A real-estate company even offers a helpful article on How To Gazunder Successfully. While legal, the practice is clearly unethical. It’s fitting then, that the word gazunder has another slang meaning, though it’s unrelated to today’s word. It also refers to a chamber pot, from the condensed spelling of “goes under” referring to where a chamber pot is placed.

USAGE:

“What if the buyer tries to gazunder you?
‘If you feel your boundaries were transgressed, but you sell, that may affect your self-esteem for decades. But if you are too rigid, that could cost you. Meditation^* helps you find a pragmatic middle ground.’”
Hugh Graham; What’s the Secret of Sealing the Deal? For Britain’s First “Mindful Estate Agent”, It’s a Meditation Session; Sunday Times (London, UK); Feb 9, 2020.
^*At first I thought it was a typo for “mediation”, but no, it is “meditation”. See the title of the article. -Ed.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: