A.Word.A.Day --gob

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Jan 28, 2019

This week’s theme
Words that have many unrelated meanings

This week’s words
gob
skelf
shingle
plenum
rede

A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob

Image: Wikimedia

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Imagine just 50 years ago, you met someone who told you that in the future you’d be carrying a radio, a television, a record player, a calculator, a clock, a camera, a photo album, a library, not to mention a telephone, with you every day, everywhere. And all this would nicely fit in your pocket.

You’d have looked at them in disbelief. How technology can advance so much in just a few decades!

This week’s words are somewhat like that gadget in your pocket. They pack a whole bunch of meanings in just a few letters.

gob

PRONUNCIATION:

(gob)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Lump or a large amount of something.
2. Mouth.
3. Sailor.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: Probably from Middle French gobe/goube (mouthful, lump). Earliest documented use: 1382.
For 2: Probably from Irish and/or Scottish Gaelic gob (beak, mouth). Earliest documented use: 1568.
For 3: Probably from gobshite (a worthless person), from gob (lump) + shite (feces). Earliest documented use: 1910.

USAGE:

“We learned that spending gobs of time together is marvelous.”
Ted Paul; Can Love Be an Open Book?; Los Angeles Times; Dec 22, 2018.

“I’d ... do anything other than watch you shovel pizza in your gob.”
Jill Poulsen; Unpaid Minions Must Say No to Working Like Slaves; The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia); Oct 27, 2018.

“‘A Girl, A Guy And A Gob’ (1941) is a delightful slapstick farce ... Never mind the plot (Lucy pursued by a wealthy snob and a boisterous sailor); just enjoy the fast pace and the many sight gags.”
Ted Gilling; Having a Ball; Toronto Star (Canada); Jan 7, 1990.

See more usage examples of gob in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. -Colette, author (28 Jan 1873-1954)

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