gormless adj. [GORM-lus]

笨头笨脑的，傻的

Defintion

chiefly British: lacking intelligence : stupid
主要用在英国，缺乏智慧的：愚蠢的

Did You Know?

Gormless began life as the English dialect word gaumless, which was altered to the modern spelling when it expanded into wider use in the late 19th century. The origins of gaumless are easy to understand; the word derives from a combination of the dialect noun gaum, meaning "attention" or "understanding," and the suffix -less. This gaum has a relative verb, also limited to dialect use, meaning "to pay attention to" and "to understand." Perhaps surprisingly, the four-letter gaum has multiple additional dialectal uses that are etymologically unrelated to these. Also noun-and-verb pairs, gaum means "a sticky or greasy mess" and "to smudge or smear especically with something sticky or geasy," as well as "a stupid doltish person" and "to behave in a stupid or awkward manner." Use of all of these pales in comparison to that of gormless, however, which is most frequently seen in British English.

词源词根演化：gaum ("attention" or "understanding") + less --> gaumless --> gormless

gormless最初写作英语方言gaumless，在19世纪晚期随着应用范围的扩大逐渐变成了现代的写法gormless。gaumless的起源很容易理解，这个词是由方言gaum（注意或理解）与后缀-less组合而成，即不注意，不理解，即蠢笨的。gaum还有个动词亲戚，也仅限于方言中使用，意思是“注意到”或者“理解，明白”。或许令人惊讶的是，这个仅有4个字母的gaum单词，还有一些其他的方言用法，但是词源上都各不相干。而且作为名词-动词对，gaum意思可以表示名词“黏糊糊或者油乎乎的乱态”和动词“用黏糊糊/油乎乎的东西涂抹”，也可以表示名词“一个蠢笨的人”和动词“蠢笨方式地做行”。gaumless的所有上述用法，也可以使用gormless，只是gormless更常见于英式英语中。

注：smudge：污点，污渍，浓烟；smear：涂抹，弄脏，诽谤；doltish：蠢笨的；pales：v. 变苍白的，变暗淡，相形见绌

Examples

"It would be difficult to think of many things more gormless than driving a car while blindfolded ..."
--- Fergus Kelly, The Express, 16 Jan. 2019
很难想象出还有什么事情比蒙着眼开车更愚蠢的...
"On screen, Laurel played gormless underling to Hardy's finicky little king. Off screen, though, the roles were reversed. Laurel co-directed the pictures and devised the bulk of the gags."
--- Xan Brooks, The Guardian, 4 Jan. 2019

在荧屏上，Laurel出演的是一个由Hardy扮演的挑剔的小国王的蠢笨的属下。但是在荧幕外，角色恰恰反过来了，Laurel不但协助指导画面拍摄，还设计了大量的笑话包袱。

注：underling：属下，部下；finicky：过分挑剔的，苛求的；gag：n./v. 箝口物；箝制言论(的命令)；笑话；恶作剧

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【英语学习】【WOTD】gormless 释义/词源/示例

gormless adj. [GORM-lus]

Defintion

Did You Know?

Examples

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