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Feb 1, 2012
This week's theme
Dickensian characters that became words

This week's words
wellerism
fagin
gamp
scrooge
gradgrind

Mrs Gamp
Mrs Gamp
Illustration: Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke)
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

gamp

PRONUNCIATION:
(gamp)

MEANING:
noun: A large umbrella.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Sarah Gamp, a nurse in Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit. She carries a large umbrella. Earliest documented use: 1864.

USAGE:
"By the time we fumble with our windcheaters and gamps, the air is dry once again."
Narayani Ganesh; City of Derry in Northern Ireland; The Economic Times (New Delhi, India); Dec 31, 2010.

See more usage examples of gamp in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

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