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Glossary of Colloquialisms
(Starting with "G")



By Natalya Belinsky,
"Fluent English Educational Project"




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GAL
(chat) get a life

GD&R
(chat) grinning, ducking, and running

GG
(chat) good game

GI
1. Government Issue - stamped on US military equipment and often means US soldier.
Example:
The man went to the store and bought a GI Joe doll for his son.
Etymology:
GI is short for government issue, a descriptive term for supplies distributed by the government.
2. Galvanized iron: iron or steel specially coated with zinc in order to prevent rust.
3. (comp.) Sony CD Extreme Global Image File.
4. (Lancashire Slang)gi: give.
5. (Most Common Acronyms and Abbreviations) Get(s) It.
6. Gastrointestinal: of or relating to the stomach and intestines.
Example: He has a gastrointestinal disorder
7. A unit of magnetomotive force equal to 0.7958 ampere-turns
Synonyms: gilbert, gb.
8. Karate uniform.
9. (scientific) glycemic index: a) a scale of the effects of individual foods on blood glucose concentrations shortly after ingestion; b) a food's rank on this scale; c) the degree to which a food ingested alone increases the concentration of glucose in the blood comparative to a standard (a criterial food).
10. (International codes) Gibraltar.
11. (mobile systems) Reference point between GPRS and an external packet data.
12. (companies) Giant Industries Inc. - Exchange: NYSE, Market Cap: $88.6M - Holding company with subsidiaries which refine and market petroleum products through company operated retail facilities, independent wholesalers and retailers, industrial/commercial accounts and sales and exchanges with major oil companies; And own and operate fast food restaurants and service stations augmented with convenience.
13. Game Informer (video game magazine).
14. Garuda Indonesia (airline).
15. Gasherbrum I (26,470 ft. mountain near Pakistan-China).
16. Gateway Integration.
17. Gelbray International (Association).
18. General Infantry.
19. General Information.
20. General Inspection.
21. General Instruments Corporation.
22. General Issue.
23. Geographically Impossible.
24. Geophysical Institute.
25. Geospatial Information.
26. Geospatial Intelligence (National System for Geospatial Intelligence).
27. (German) Gesellschaft für Qualitätswissenschaft e. V. (Germany)



GI Joe

  • GI
  • Joe


(Amer.) A nickname for United States soldiers, particularly during World War II; an enlisted man in the US military.
Etymology:
GI is short for government issue, a descriptive term for supplies distributed by the government.


GPRS

  • General Packet Radio Service
  • General Packet
  • Radio Service
  • General
  • Packet
  • Radio
  • Service


(Mobile System abbr.) General Packet Radio Service:
Phase 1 - Point to Point,
Phase 2 - Point to Multipoint.
Terminals:
Class A: Supports GPRS and other GSM services (such as SMS and voice); Class B: Can monitor GSM and GPRS channels simultaneously, but can support only one of these services at a time;
Class C: Supports only nonsimultaneous attach.
The user must select which service to connect to.

GRE

  • G.R.E.
  • Graduate Record Examination


Graduate Record Examination - standardized test for applicants to graduate school programs in the USA. The GRE is taken by college graduates who want to go to graduate school. Students take it after completing a bachelor's degree (or in their senior year).


GTSY
(web, chat) glad to see you



Get real

  • Get real!
  • Get
  • real
  • get serious
  • get serious!
  • serious


(Slang)
1. Be realistic!; Don't be naive!; Be serious!
2. To try to see what is really happening; to face reality; to think and act in a serious fashion; to stop fantasizing.
Synonym: get serious
Examples:
1. He wants five million dollars to play hockey? Tell him to get real.
2. Mrs. Gonzales isn't going to believe that weird excuse you gave her. Get real.
Etymology:
This is a strong modern African-American expression, an order to give up illusions and white lies.


Get the lead out!

  • Get the lead out
  • Shake the lead out!
  • Shake the lead out
  • shake
  • get
  • lead
  • shake out
  • lead out


(slang) Hurry up!
Examples:
1) Move it, you guys!" hollered the coach. "Shake the lead out!"
2) Bob: Get the lead out, you loafer!
Bill: Don't rush me!
Etymology: As if smb. is slowed down by a lead in his pockets or somewhere else.
Synonym: Shake the lead out

Glamour puss

  • Glamor puss
  • Glamour
  • Glamor
  • puss


A glamorous lady.
Etymology: Probably derived from the ancient word "buss" which means "face," esp. the lips. Over time, the word began to be pronounced as "puss," associating it with the cat. A reference to the sleek pose of a cat.

Gooding Day

  • Gooding
  • Day


The feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 21 December.
Etymology:
It was once the custom in parts of England for women to go from house to house for ask for money to cheer their Christmas. This was called "going gooding" or "goin' a-gooding", because it was the custom for grateful recipients to wish all that is good to their benefactors for the festive season. As a result the day was in some places called "Gooding Day".


Gotham
1. English village known for the foolishness of its inhabitants (county: Nottinghamshire). 2. A satirical term for New York City; New York's nickname.
3. A fictional city, home to Batman.
Example:
"Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898" is a nonfiction book written by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. It was published in 1998 by Oxford Press. It was the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Etymology:
The nickname "Gotham" derives from the Old English "Gatham" ("enclosure", lit. "homestead" - "place to keep goats"); it is the name of a village in Nottinghamshire, England. It is unknown if this was the place intended.
Since the mid-15th century, Gotham has denoted "a place with foolish inhabitants" - the equivalent Canadian term is House of Commons. Washington Irving first applied it to New York in his satirical work "Salmagundi" (1807), based on "Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham" (1460), a collection of legendary stories of English villagers alternately wise and foolish. The story is that, threatened by a visit from King John (reigned 1199-1216), they decided to feign stupidity and avoid the expense entailed by the residence of the court. Royal messengers found them engaged in ridiculous tasks, such as trying to drown an eel and joining hands around a thornbush to shut in a cuckoo.


Gotterdammerung
[gher-ter-DEM-uh-roong]
A collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder; downfall.
Example:
Although we all hoped for a peaceful transfer of power, we feared the conflict would instead end in a chaotic Gotterdammerung.
History:
Norse mythology specified that the destruction of the world would be preceded by a cataclysmic final battle between the good and evil gods, resulting in the heroic deaths of all the "good guys." The German word for this earth-shattering last battle was "Gotterdammerung." Literally, "Gotterdammerung" means "twilight of the gods." ("Gotter" is the plural of "Gott," meaning "god," and "Dammerung" means "twilight.") Figuratively, the term is extended to situations of world-altering destruction marked by extreme chaos and violence. In the 19th century, the German composer Richard Wagner brought attention to the word "Gotterdammerung" when he chose it as the title of the last opera of his cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen", and by the early 20th century, the word had entered English.


Gr8
(chat) great

Grand Guignol

  • Grand
  • Guignol


[grahng-gheen-YAWL] (the "ng" is not pronounced, but the vowel is nasalized)
1. A dramatic entertainment featuring the gruesome or horrible.
Example:
Part fairy tale and part Grand Guignol, the film had a bizarre overall effect that many viewers found very disturbing.
2. Gruesome; horrifying.
Etymology:
The name "Guignol" springs from a popular French puppet whose name became synonymous with puppet theater in 19th century France. The Guignol character (who is still popular among children) has a mercurial temperament - quick to anger, but equally quick to forgive. In the late 19th century, the Theatre du Grand Guignol, located in the Montmartre section of Paris, opened. The theater's name means literally "large puppet theater" although it didn't feature puppets but real people in gory one-act performances of murder and mayhem - the "adult" version of Guignol. Today we use "Grand Guignol" generally to mean entertainment of the horror-show variety. We also use it as a modifier meaning "gruesome" or "horrifying."


Great oaks from little acorns grow

  • Great
  • oak
  • little
  • acorn
  • grow


Just as a small acorn can grow into a towering oak tree, a small undertaking can lead to great results.
Example: Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin and read books by firelight. Even though his family was poor, he became one of the United States' greatest presidents. His life is true to the saying, "Great oaks from little acorns grow."

Greenwich Mean Time

  • Mean Time
  • GMT
  • Mean
  • Time
  • Greenwich


The time at Greenwich, Greater London, that the world is based on. In summer it is 4 hours late in relation to Moscow time.
In winter, the difference makes 3 hours.

Ground Zero

  • Ground zero
  • ground zero
  • ground
  • zero
  • hypocenter
  • square one
  • square


Also: Ground zero, ground zero.
1. The point of detonation (or above or below) of a nuclear weapon.
Synonym: hypocenter.
2. The site of the World Trade Center before it was destroyed.
Example:
Where was God on Sept. 11? What is the nature of evil? Is religion itself to blame, or is it our last refuge? What faith can be salvaged from Ground Zero?
3. The target of a projectile (as a bomb or missile).
4. The very beginning; the starting point or most basic level.
Example:
My client didn't like my preliminary designs, so I returned to ground zero.
5. The center of rapid or intense development or change.
Example:
The neighborhood scarcely existed five years ago, but today it is the ground zero from which designer shops and restaurants radiate. (Robert Clark, "Food and Wine", October 1988).
Synonym: square one.
History:
The term has chiefly come to be associated with nuclear explosions, but is also used for earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters. It was military slang used at the Trinity site where the weapon tower was at point "zero" and moved into general use very shortly after the end of World War II.

 

g/f

  • gf


(SMS) girlfriend


gadabout

  • social butterfly
  • social
  • butterfly
  • gadfly
  • gad


[GAD-uh-bowt] ("ow" as in "cow")
A person who flits about in social activity; someone who roams about in search of amusement or social activity.
Examples:
1) In his unorthodox and callow way, he frequently upset and annoyed his countrymen, but they continued to vote for him, perhaps taking a vicarious pleasure in being led by such a world-famous gadabout. ("Milestones of 2000," Times (London), December 29, 2000)
2)
She hugged him fiercely. "Oh, I love you, Jake Grafton, you worthless gadabout fly-boy, you fool that sails away and leaves me." (Jack Anderson, "Control")
3) Teddy was a bon vivant and gadabout. (Nadine Brozan, "Born in a Trunk: The Story of the Hornes," New York Times, June 20, 1986)
4) Mr. Hart-Davis, as befits a professional literary man, is something of a gadabout. (Daphne Merkin, "From Two Most English Men," New York Times, June 23, 1985)
5) Emily had been a gadabout in college, so none of her friends were surprised that she ended up as a Hollywood gossip columnist.
Etymology, synonyms, related words:
"Gadabout" is formed from the verb "gad" ("to rove or go about without purpose or restlessly", from Middle English "gadden" - "to hurry") + "about".
If you had to pick the insect most closely related to a "gadabout," you might wryly guess the "social butterfly." But there's another bug that's commonly heard buzzing around discussions of "gadabout" - the gadfly. "Gadfly" is a term used for any of a number of winged pests (such as horseflies) that bite or annoy livestock. Since gadflies are known for their nasty bite, it's not surprising that they are named after a sharp chisel or pointed bar used by miners to loosen rock and ore called a "gad." But, although a gadabout's gossip can bite, "gadfly" doesn't have any clear etymological relation to "gadabout".


gadget grandparents

  • gadget grandparent
  • gadget
  • grandparents
  • gadget grannies
  • gadget granny
  • gadget grandpas
  • gadget grandpa
  • grannies
  • granny
  • grandpas
  • grandpa


Older consumers becoming technology savvy; "new" grandparents that prefer traveling and relaxation with the help of different technical gimmicks to babysitting.
Example:
"Gadget grandparents" turn on to the latest technology.



gadzookery

  • gadzooks
  • gadzook
  • tushery


[gad-ZOO-kuh-ree]
(British) the use of archaisms (as in a historical novel)
Example:
"Get rid of the gadzookery," Bruce's editor cautioned. "Mirabella can perfectly well say 'please' instead of 'prithee.'"
Etymology:
"Gadzooks . . . you astonish me!" cries Mr. Lenville in Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby". We won't accuse Dickens of "gadzookery" ("the bane of historical fiction," as historical novelist John Vernon called it in "Newsday" magazine), because we assume people actually said "gadzooks" back in the 1830s. That mild oath is an old-fashioned euphemism, so it is thought, for "God's hooks" (a reference, supposedly, to the nails of the Crucifixion). But it's a fine line today's historical novelist must toe, avoiding expressions like "zounds" and "pshaw" and "tush" ("tushery" is a synonym of the newer "gadzookery", which first cropped up in the 1950s), as well as "gadzooks", while at the same time rejecting modern expressions such as "okay" and "nice".


gadzooks

  • gadzook
  • gadzookery
  • God's hooks
  • God's hook
  • gad
  • Gadsbobs
  • Gadsbob
  • Gadsnigs
  • Gadsnig
  • Gadsbudlikins
  • Gadsbudlikin
  • Gadsokers
  • Gadsoker
  • Gadsprecious
  • Gadswookers
  • Gadswooker


An exclamation of surprise or annoyance.
History, examples:
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, has been widely reported recently as uttering this imprecation upon seeing a new portrait of himself by Stuart Pearson Wright in which he is bare-chested, with a bug on his shoulder and a plant growing out of his finger. "Gadzooks!", he commented. "As long as I don't have to have it on my wall." How very eighteenth-century of HRH to choose this word to express his feelings, since nobody but he these days utters this word other than as a conscious attempt at humorous archaism or as a cheap way to invoke a period. This latter trick is so derided that historical novelists who introduce words like "prithee", "zounds", "gramercy" and "gadzooks" into their dialogue are sometimes accused by British literary critics of indulging in "gadzookery". Not only modern authors, since by 1869, when R. D. Blackmore wrote "Lorna Doone", set in the previous century, the word was already out of fashion: "'Gadzooks, Master Pooke,' said I, having learned fine words at Tiverton; 'do you suppose that I know not then the way to carry firearms?"
Tobias Smollett published "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" in 1751, when the word was at the height of its popularity: "'What!' cried the painter, in despair, 'become a singer? Gadzooks! and the devil and all that! I'll rather be still where I am, and let myself be devoured by vermin.'" "Gadzooks" is usually said to be an alteration of "God's hooks", that is, the nails by which Christ was fastened to the cross. It's one of a set of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century euphemistic oaths that used "gad" as a thinly disguised version of "God", often attached to a second element of uncertain parentage. Other examples are "Gadsbobs", "Gadsnigs", "Gadsbudlikins", "Gadsokers", "Gadsprecious", and "Gadswookers".


gainsay
[gayn-SAY; GAYN-say] 1. To deny or dispute; to declare false or invalid. 2. To oppose; to contradict.
Examples:
1) In our present, imperfectly postmodern world, where most information still takes the potentially embarrassing form of printed matter lurking in archives, liars still must position themselves so that the historical record may not easily gainsay them. (Thomas M. Disch, "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of")
2) But, owing to government's cynical policy of inaction, suppression and hoping the problem would go away, there was nothing to gainsay it either. (Mary Riddell, "I don't mind about midsummer madness, but I'd rather not have it in my fridge or purring on the sofa", New Statesman, July 26, 1996)
Etymology:
"Gainsay" comes from Middle English "geinseien", from "gein-" ("against"), from Old English "gegn-, gean-" + "sayen" ("to say"), from Old English "secgan".


galligaskins

  • gallygaskins
  • gallygaskin
  • Galligaskin


1. loose wide breeches or hose, esp. as worn by men in the 17th century
2. leather leggings, as worn in the 19th century
3. loose trousers
Example:
Galligaskins - Clothing Alaskans love to live in Etymology:
This was a fashion of the 16th and 17th centuries, one that eventually disappeared, as did the active use of the word, which survives in historical contexts or as a humorous word for nether garments. It's an odd-looking word, well fitted to the epithet weird. It came about through another of those cloth-eared Englishmen's attempts at getting their minds around a foreign term. They knew it was French in immediate origin, "gargesque", and they knew the garments were often worn by sailors, so they assumed that the first part was "galley", either from the oared ship, or from the cooking area on board ship. Similar items were known at about the same time as "gally-slops" or "gally-breeches", so that would easily account for the conversion of the first element of the French word into something more English-sounding. (The first of these was often abbreviated to "slops", a similar item; the material for them was kept on board ship in the "slop-chest", though sailors' working garments, at least of a later period, were loose trousers rather than breeches.) In his famous dictionary of 1828 Noah Webster said that the word was derived from "Gallic Gascons", the inhabitants of Gascony. But the French word was taken from the Italian "grechesca", something Greek, because the fashion for loose breeches was originally from that country. Around the years 1580-1620 similar garments were called "Venetians", because a comparable fashion had been imported from Venice. "Galligaskins" made a relatively late appearance in "Sir Nigel", an historical novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1906: "It was a wretched, rutted mule-track running through thick forests with occasional clearings in which lay the small Kentish villages, where rude shock-headed peasants with smocks and galligaskins stared with bold, greedy eyes at the travellers." This is probably a different sense of the word, since the English Dialect Dictionary says that it was used in Kent and other counties for work leggings, which it described as "rough leather overalls, worn by thatchers, hedgers, and labourers. They are usually home-made from dried raw skin, and are fastened to the front only of the leg and thigh."


galumph
[guh-LUHM(P)F]
To move in a clumsy manner or with a heavy tread.
Example:
1) Julia was just then galumphing down the stairs with her overstuffed suitcase. (Jonathan Lethem, "Motherless Brooklyn")
2) Then he climbed up the little iron ladder that led to the wharf's cap, placed me once more upon his shoulders and galumphed off again. (Alistair MacLeod, "Island: The Complete Stories")
3)
Lizards patrol the . .. landscape, and giant tortoises galumph on the beaches. (Peter M. Nichols, "Gal?pagos," New York Times, March 30, 2001)
Etymology:
Bump, thump, thud. There's no doubt about it, when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. "Galumph" first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwocky in "Through the Looking Glass": "He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back". Etymologists suspect Carroll created "galumph" by altering the word "gallop," perhaps throwing in a pinch of "triumphant" for good measure (in its earliest uses, "galumph" did convey a sense of exultant bounding). Other 19th-century writers must have liked the sound of "galumph", because they began plying it in their own prose and it has been clumping around our language ever since.

gambit

  • gambett


[GAM-bit]
1. A chess opening in which a player risks one or more pawns or a minor piece to gain an advantage in position.
2. A remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point.
3. A topic.
4. A calculated move; a stratagem
Example:
Amy wasn't very impressed with Ryan's opening gambit: spilling his drink to get her attention.
History:
In 1656, a chess handbook was published that was said to have almost a hundred illustrated "gambetts." That early spelling of "gambit" is close to the Italian word, "gambetto," from which it is derived. "Gambetto" was used for an act of tripping - especially one that gave an advantage, as in wrestling. The original chess gambit is an opening in which a bishop's pawn is sacrificed to gain some advantage, but the name is now applied to many other chess openings. After being pinned down to chess for about two centuries, "gambit" finally broke free of the hold and showed itself to be a legitimate contender in the English language by weighing in with other meanings.


gambol

  • gambolde
  • gambalde


1. To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
Examples:
1) I've been told dolphins like to gambol in the waves in these waters, and that sighting them brings good luck. (Barbara Kingsolver, "Where the Map Stopped", New York Times, May 17, 1992)
2) The bad news is that while most of us gambol in the sun, there will be much wringing of hands in environment-hugging circles about global warming and climate change. (Derek Brown, "Heatwaves", The Guardian, June 16, 2000)
2. A skipping or leaping about in frolic.
Example:
Then they joined hands (it was the stranger who began it by catching Martha and Matilda) and danced... until they were breathless, every one of them, save little Sammy, who was not asked to join the gambol, but sat still in his chair, and seemed to expect no invitation. (Norman Duncan, "Santa Claus At Lonely Cove", The Atlantic, December 1903)
Etymology:
"Gambol", earlier "gambolde" or "gambalde", comes from Medieval French "gambade" ("a leaping or skipping"), from Late Latin "gamba" ("hock (of a horse), leg"), from Greek "kampe" ("a joint or bend").


gamine

  • gamin


[gam-EEN; GAM-een]
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
Examples:
1) And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is "living her own nightmare" and waking up in lots of strange places. (Joe Brown, "Washington Post", January 17, 1992)
2) ... the delectable young gamine employed as a waitress in a Montmartre cafe. (Peter Bradshaw, "Jolie good show," The Guardian, October 5, 2001)
Etymology, a related word:
"Gamine" comes from the French.
A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin (pronounced [GAM-in]).


gamut
[GAM-ut]
1. The whole series of recognized musical notes.
2. An entire range or series.
Example:
Jenny's musical tastes run the gamut from Bach to Janis Joplin to Usher.
Etymology:
To get the lowdown on "gamut," we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale developed by 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo. Guido called the first line of his bass staff "gamma" and the first note in his scale "ut," which meant that "gamma ut" was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, "gamma ut" underwent a shortening to "gamut" but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, an entire range of any sort.


gangsta
Member of a street gang; clothing or attitudes associated with urban street gangs in the United States.
Example: Tony likes to dress like a gansta, but we all know that he's actually from the suburbs.
Etymology: From 'gangster', meaning a tough guy who belongs to a criminal gang or group.

garbology

  • garbologist
  • dumpster diving
  • dumpster
  • diving
  • dumpster diver
  • diver
  • trolleyology


The study of a person or group of people by examining what they throw away.
Examples:
1) In Garbology, everyday pieces of trash suddenly become valuable and interesting artefacts from which many inferences about their source can be drawn. ("Ampersand", vol. two, issue two, Florida Gulf Coast University, Spring semester 1999) 2) Garbologists estimate that it will take a paper bag forty to fifty years to decompose. (APLD (California Chapter) Newsletter, July 2006) History, related words: These are extremes, of course, but the majority of us dispose of a wide range of food items and domestic products every day, which, when accumulated, might reveal something about our habits. Analysis of this idiosyncratic combination of refuse has now become known as garbology - basically, the study of someone's trash. Garbology involves the careful observation and study of the waste products produced by a population in order to learn about that population's activities, mainly in areas such as waste disposal and food consumption. Garbage anthropologists, known as garbologists, can use rubbish to draw comparisons between what is known as real behaviour (what people actually do) and ideal behaviour (what people say they do or what they'd like to think they do). The analysis of food consumption and domestic habits is not the only application of garbology. It has also been used as a form of IT-related espionage, a means of acquiring the personal details of computer users without their knowledge or consent. For instance, forgetful people will often write passwords down on bits of paper, which may end up in office rubbish bins. As well as sorting and analysing physical bits of paper, this form of garbology sometimes includes analysis of files found in a computer's 'recycle bin'. Even if passwords and other security information can't be found here, it is often possible to collect information which forms a profile of a computer user, enabling an attacker to guess passwords or security details based on the names of pets, family members etc., or whatever seems important to a user. The word "garbology" is a blend of the noun "garbage" (originating from a 15th century Anglo-Norman French word denoting 'the entrails or 'waste' parts of an animal'), and the suffix "-ology", used to describe a subject of study or a branch of knowledge. First use of the term dates back to the 1970s, and is mainly attributed to William Rathje, an archaeologist and former professor at the University of Arizona. Rathje directed the Garbage Project, a long-term study dedicated to field research in trash dumps, and he co-authored "Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage" (<http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1369.htm>). An American English term used in related contexts is "dumpster diving", the practice of rummaging through commercial or residential rubbish containers in order to find useful items that have been discarded. Practitioners are called "dumpster divers". For an anthropological analysis of food and domestic products before they hit the rubbish bin, compare trolleyology, which explores how the contents of a person's shopping trolley reveal something about their behaviour or personality.

gardening leave

  • gardening
  • leave


(used euphemistically) departing employee's paid leave: obligatory leave with full pay given to employees between notification of termination of employment and the actual termination date; an employee's suspension from work on full pay for some reason.
Example:
My old firm required you to work until the last minute of the last day, so "gardening leave" and having to go in now and again is a bonus, believe me.


gargantuan

  • gigantic
  • colossal


[gar-GAN-shuh-wun]
Tremendous in size, volume, or degree.
Synonyms: gigantic, colossal
Example:
The town's wealthiest family lived in a gargantuan mansion at the top of the hill, complete with twelve bedrooms, two swimming pools and a tennis court.
Etymology:
"Gargantua" is the name of a giant king in Francois Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel "Gargantua". All of the details of Gargantua's life befit a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orleans. He has an enormous appetite - in one memorable incident, he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua gave rise to the adjective "gargantuan," which since Shakespeare's time has been used of anything of tremendous size or volume.


garrulous

  • talkative
  • loquacious
  • chatty


[GAIR-uh-lus; GAIR-yuh-]
1. Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things.
2. Wordy.
Synonyms: talkative, loquacious, chatty
Examples:
1) Without saying a single word she managed to radiate disapproval ... the air seemed to grow heavy with it and the most garrulous talker would wilt and fall silent. (Mark Amory, "Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric")
2)
He was as garrulous as a magpie. (Ferdinand Mount, "Jem (and Sam)")
3) The garrulous ancient was for once holding his tongue. (William Black, "Madcap Violet")
4)
Crammed with gossip, anecdotes, and confessions..., his garrulous, untidy narratives read like a good novel. (James Atlas, "A Modern Whitman," The Atlantic, December 1984)
5)
He took a great liking to this Rev. Mr. Peters, and talked with him a great deal: told him yarns, gave him toothsome scraps of personal history, and wove a glittering streak of profanity through his garrulous fabric that was refreshing to a spirit weary of the dull neutralities of undecorated speech. (Mark Twain, "Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion II," The Atlantic, November 1877)
Etymology:
"Garrulous" is from Latin "garrulus", from "garrire" ("to chatter, to babble").

gastronome
[GAS-truh-nohm]
A connoisseur of good food and drink.
Examples:
1) If "poultry is for the cook what canvas is for a painter," to quote the 19th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin, why paint the same painting over and over again? (John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, "From Poussin to Capon, a Chicken in Every Size," New York Times, September 22, 1999)
2) Even though Paris was then considered the culinary capital of Europe, the food at the Cercle was so highly revered that many well-known gastronomes regularly made the trip to Lyon to eat there. (Daniel Rogov, "Three culinary tales for Hanukka," Jerusalem Post, December 6, 1996)
3) I am no gastronome at the best; moreover, I have, over the years, eaten in so many unpropitious circumstances and from so many truly awful kitchens that I have come to consider myself almost as much a connoisseur of bad food as other men are of good. (James Cameron, "Albania: The Last Marxist Paradise," The Atlantic, June 1963)
Etymology:
"Gastronome" is ultimately derived from Greek "gaster" ("stomach") + "nomos" ("rule, law").


gauche

  • adroit
  • dexterous
  • ambidextrous


Lacking social polish; tactless; awkward; clumsy.
Examples:
1. He was largely exempted from the formal socializing he said he found so hard to manage, flustered and gauche in polite company as he had always been. (John Sturrock, "Well on the Way to Paranoia", New York Times, July 28, 1991)
2. He was by nature intellectual, shy, even gauche and he always believed he lacked the common touch. ("Editor whose legacy was diversity", Irish Times, October 9, 1999)
3. The audience's performance was altogether more gauche, with scores of people in the stalls constantly turning round to gawp at Mick Jagger seated ten rows back. (Noreen Taylor, "How was it for him?", Times (London), August 3, 2000)
Etymology:
"Gauche" is from the French for left, awkward. The left side of anything is often considered to be unlucky or bad, and our language reflects this. A "left-handed compliment", one that is insincere, backhanded, or dubious, is not one you are happy to receive; a "left-handed oath" is one not intended to be binding. "Sinister", Latin for left, suggests or threatens evil. Gauche is tactless, awkward and clumsy, but "droit", the French word for right, gives us "adroit" ("skillful"), and "dexter", the Latin for right, gives us "dexterous" (also meaning skillful). If you are ambidextrous, able to use both hands with equal facility, then, etymologically speaking, you have right hands on both sides ("ambi-" = "on both sides"). "Left" itself comes from Old English "lyft", "left" ("weak, useless"), since it names the hand which in most people is weaker.


gaucherie

  • blunder
  • faux pas
  • faux
  • pas
  • gaffe


[goh-shuh-REE]
1. A socially awkward or tactless act.
2. Lack of tact; boorishness; awkwardness.
Synonyms: blunder, faux pas, gaffe.
Examples:
1) If you find yourself sitting next to an obviously prosperous guest at a dinner party and your host introduces him (it will be a him) as a "successful barrister", you will be guilty of a gaucherie of the crassest kind if you exclaim: "How fascinating! If I promise not to call you Rumpole, will you tell me about your goriest murder trials?" (Nick Cohen, "Don't leave justice to the judges," New Statesman, December 13, 1999)
2) Here we see the insecure, unattractive woman who at long last has found someone even more insecure and unattractive than herself, calling attention to her companion's gaucherie in order to feel, for once in her life, like the belle of the ball. (Florence King, "Out and About," National Review, November 9, 1998)
Etymology:
"Gaucherie" comes from the French, from "gauche" ("lefthanded; awkward"), from Old French, from "gauchir" ("to turn aside, to swerve, to walk clumsily").


gauntlet

  • throw down the gauntlet
  • throw down
  • throw
  • pick up the gauntlet
  • pick up
  • pick


[GAWNT-lut]
1. A glove worn with medieval armor to protect the hand.
2. Any of various protective gloves used especially in industry.
3. An open challenge (as to combat) - used in phrases like "throw down the gauntlet".
Example:
Herb threw down the gauntlet, asking his guests, "Which one of you wants to get beaten in a game of chess?"
4. A dress glove extending above the wrist.
Etymology, history, related expressions:
"Gauntlet" comes from Middle French "gantelet," the diminutive of "gant," meaning "glove." (The "gauntlet" that means "severe trial," "ordeal," or "double file of armed men" is a different word that originates from Old Swedish "gata," meaning "road," and "lop," meaning "course.") "To throw down the gauntlet" means "to issue an open challenge." "To pick up the gauntlet" means "to accept an open challenge." These figurative phrases come from the conventions of medieval combat. The gauntlet was the glove of a suit of armor. To challenge someone to combat, a knight would throw his glove at another knight's feet. The second knight would take it up if he intended to accept the challenge, in which case a jousting match might ensue.


gazebo
[g'zi:b@U]
A small building, usually in a garden, with a good view.
Example:
Corsham Court (5 miles) has some fine Georgian state rooms, and grounds with a 15th-century gazebo. (Stone, Mike and Russell, Roger. "Warm welcomes in Britain". Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles Publishers plc, 1990)
History:
This word is surrounded by more mystery than an earnest etymologist would like. It appears in 1752 without any warning or antecedent in part four of a book by William and John Halfpenny with the title "New Designs for Chinese Temples", an influential work that was aimed at the then new English fashion for the oriental in design and architecture. Little is known about William Halfpenny, who described himself as an architect and carpenter, not even if this was his real name (another architectural writer of the period, Batty Langley, said he was actually called Michael Hoare), nor whether his collaborator John Halfpenny was his son, as some have assumed, or even existed. The word "gazebo" is equally mysterious. A lot of people have assumed that - like the temples described in the book - it must be of oriental origin. If it is, nobody has found its source. Failing that, etymologists have made an educated guess that he named the structure tongue-in-cheek, taking the ending "-ebo" from the Latin future tense and adding it to "gaze", so making a hybrid word that might mean "I will look". If true, the model was probably "videbo", "I shall see", or perhaps "lavabo", literally "I will wash", taken from the Latin mass of the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the towel or basin used in the ritual washing of the celebrant's hands. Early gazebos were often a tower or lantern on the roof of a house, a projecting balcony, or a structure attached to the top of a wall. Only much later was the word applied to a summerhouse, usually one with open sides. To be strict about it, only those edifices with a good view may be given that name; all others are mere shelters.


gazette
1. (British) A newspaper; a printed sheet published periodically; esp., the official journal published by the British government, and containing legal and state notices. 2. (British) To publish in an official government journal; to announce officially, as an appointment, or a case of bankruptcy.
Examples:
1) In 1964, the annual Labour Gazette stopped printing annual retirement figures.
2) I say, we could have a newspaper, a sort of Gazette!
Etymology:

"Newspaper," 1605; originally, a newssheet containing an abstract of current events, from Fr. "gazette", from the Italian phrase "gazeta de la novita", from It. "gazzetta", Venetian dial. "gazeta" = "newspaper," originally the name of a small copper coin, lit. "little magpie," from "gazza"; applied to the monthly newspaper published in Venice by the government mid-1500s, either from its price (it was sold for one gazeta) or its association with the bird (typical of false chatter), or both. First used in Eng. 1665 for the paper issued at Oxford, whither the court had fled from the plague. Gazetteer "geographical dictionary" is from Laurence Eachard's 1693 geographical handbook for journalists, "The Gazetteer's, or Newsman's, Interpreter," second edition simply titled "The Gazetteer."


gd&h
(SMS) grinning, ducking and hiding


gee
1. charm or attractiveness in trying to talk to a female.
Example:
Your gee ain't strong enough to get a date.
2. a mild oath, euphemism for "Jesus!";
3. a girlfriend;
4. to have sexual intercourse

geisha

  • geishas
  • geisha girl
  • prostitute
  • courtesan


Pl. - geisha, geishas
A Japanese woman trained and paid to host and entertain men with conversation and singing and dancing; a member of a professional class of women in