gauche
/ɡoʊʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.53 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having a torsion angle of 60°.
Example Sentences
- "Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display In 'good society', to make her way"
- "She looked a trifle gauche, it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is."
- ""He's a trifle gauche" said Lady Hammergallow, jumping upon the Vicar's attention. "He neither bows nor smiles. He must cultivate oddities like that. Every successful executant is more or less gauche.""
- "What was once a multi-million-dollar fantasy of womanhood – exclusively svelte, athletic models in lace-trimmed thongs or diamante push-up bras, each framed by a pair of 12-foot-high angel wings – quickly became a parody so gauche it’s hard to imagine it was ever taken seriously."
Etymology
Borrowed from French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish *walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡoʊʃ/
- British English: /ɡəʊʃ/