gawk

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (cuckoo), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (cuckoo). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac. More at yeke.

Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.

Noun

gawk (plural gawks)

  1. A cuckoo.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)
  2. A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (to stare; gawk) + -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse (to heed)[1].

Verb

gawk (third-person singular simple present gawks, present participle gawking, simple past and past participle gawked)

  1. To stare or gape stupidly.
  2. To stare conspicuously.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stare

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. gawk” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
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