gormless

Alternative forms

• gaumless, gawmless

Etymology

From dialectal English gaum (“understanding”) +‎ -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“understand”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔːmləs/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

gormless (comparative more gormless, superlative most gormless)

1. (chiefly Britain, of a person) Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXI

     Did I ever look so stupid: so gormless as Joseph calls it?

   • 1988, Roald Dahl, Matilda, page 4:

     But Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.

   • 1990, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, page 171:

     There was a sort of gormless unstoppability about him that she found rather fascinating.

   • 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 978-0-7475-9106-1:, chapter 8, The Wedding, Auntie Muriel, page 141:

     “Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then. […]”

   • 2015, Adele Abbott, Witch Is When Everything Went Crazy, page 33:

     “Don’t just stand there looking gormless. There’s plenty of work to do in the back.”