g/f
(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
[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
[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
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
[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
(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
[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
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