gewgaw
/ˈɡ(j)uɡɔ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "A heavy gewgaw called a crown."
- "It was a Saxon ornament. […] Some Puritan, before his departure, may have thought himself doing God service by filching the old golden gewgaw."
- "“I am not of the neighbourhood,” said Mallow, calmly, “but the matter is irrelevant. I have had the honour to send you a little gift yesterday ——” [¶] The tech-man’s nose lifted. “I received it. An interesting gewgaw. I may have use for it on occasion.” [¶] I have other and more interesting gifts. Quite out of the gewgaw stage.”"
- "[Virtue] is a gewgaw to hang up in a display-case, or to have dangling from your tongue just as an earring dangles from your ear."
- "You or I may well view our desire to push buttons and order new electronic gewgaws as the mere reflex spasms of consumerism, but to this dynamic duo the future of the earth depends on our instant gratification more than anything else."
- "The rattle of a globe to play withal, This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off;"
Etymology
From earlier gugaw, gygaw, from Middle English givegove (“gewgaw, trifle”), a reduplication of Middle English give, geove (“gift”), from Old English giefu, geofu, geafu (“gift”), from Proto-Germanic *gebō (“gift”). Compare Icelandic gyligjöf (“showy gifts, gewgaw”). More at give.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡ(j)uɡɔ/
- British English: /ˈɡjuːɡɔː/