a frequent visitor (and one of the very few readers to leave comments) "goldenrod" queries my use of the term "gob-smacked". to be perfectly honest it's a term i use willy-nilly (willy-nilly?!) like "knackered", "cream-crackered", "the black dog", "gutted", all of which can be traced to my attachment to the idioms, traditions, and eccentricities of my english birthplace. the people at worldwide words suggest that gob-smacked is a term that (apparently) can be traced back some thirty years but which i feel certain goes back a lot further than that! the english to american dictionary (an online service for americans trying to live in, understand and more fully appreciate the world british people live and speak in) suggests that the word is an adjective that can be understood as "surprised"; taken aback". in a nutshell: " chiefly uk, slang meaning flabbergasted, astounded, speechless, overawed."
hope that helps!!
4 comments:
RRivit, Steven! I laughed and laughed when I saw the title of this post. I had already looked in Wikipedia and Wiktionary ... not in either one, so I thought, "All right, he's making up his own vocabulary now." Nothing wrong with that. I've made up a few words myself from time to time, along with bunches of alternate spellings.
my first wife and i used to make up words - they were synthesized from two or more words into one that gathered together (in our own minds) the best of what both or all three words meant. the problem was that our professors (with one exceptional exception) didn't quite "get" what we were doing . . . . . .
steven
You have a very creative and inquisitive mind, Steven. (I get quite a kick out of you, by the way!) On kind of a 'down' side, it has been my observation that most creative minds are misunderstood, ignored, or even made fun of.
i've experienced the "misunderstood, ignored, or even made fun of" through much of my life, as have many of my friends. through their fine example and through my own experience and choice, i've learned to place no energy into worrying about all of that monkey-business and to simply "be". i am who i am, and while i am as flawed as the next person, i also choose to "sing my notes out loud in this city of the soul" as my blog heading suggests!! i consider myself a very blessed person to be creative, inquisitive, and then to be able to share that for whomever crosses my path. thanks for the comments goldenrod!
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