gauche

English

WOTD – 20 April 2006

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡəʊʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡoʊʃ/

  (chemistry sense only) IPA^(key): /ɡaʊʃ/, /ɡoʊʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊʃ

Adjective

gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)

1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
   • 1836, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, The Outcast and Other Poems‎^[1], The Spirit Court of Practice and Pretence, page 102:

     Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display
     In 'good society', to make her way

   • 1879, George Meredith, “chapter XLVI”, in The Egoist:

     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.

   • 1895, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 18”, in The Wonderful Visit (Macmillan’s Colonial Library), London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:

     "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."

2. (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
3. (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°.

Synonyms

• (lacking in social graces): graceless, tactless, unsophisticated, unpolished, gawky

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “lacking in social graces”): adroit

Related terms

• gauche caviar
• gauche effect
• main-gauche
• main gauche
• très gauche

 

Translations

awkward, bumbling

• Bulgarian: груб (bg) (grub), нетактичен (bg) (netaktičen)
• Chinese: 粗魯的／粗鲁的 (cūlǔde)
• Esperanto: plumpa (eo)
• Estonian: taktitu
• Finnish: kömpelö (fi), moukkamainen (fi), tahditon (fi)
• French: gauche (fr)
• Georgian: ხეპრე (xeṗre)
• German: unbeholfen (de), linkisch (de), plump (de)
• Ido: ne-habila (io)
• Maori: tāhapa
• Portuguese: desajeitado (pt)
• Russian: неуклю́жий (ru) (neukljúžij), неуме́лый (ru) (neumélyj)
• Spanish: torpe (es)
• Swedish: fumlig (sv), taktlös (sv)

Anagrams

• guache

French

Etymology

From gauchir (“bend, dodge, warp”), a conflation of Old French gauchier (“tread”) (from Frankish *walkijan, *walkan, cognate with English walk) + Old French guenchir (“deviate”) (from Frankish *wenkijan (“to sway, falter”)). Gauche replaced the original word for "left", senestre, in the sixteenth century. Compare Walloon gåtche.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡoʃ/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

gauche (plural gauches)

1. left

   Synonym: senestre (dated)

2. awkward, gawky, clumsy

   Synonyms: empoté, lourd, maladroit

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. the left, the left-hand side

Noun

gauche m (plural gauches)

1. (boxing) a left-hander, a southpaw

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “left”): droite

Derived terms

• à gauche
• avoir deux mains gauches
• gauchard
• gaucher
• se lever du pied gauche

 

Descendants

• → Franco-Provençal: gôcho

References

• “gauche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. (Jersey) left