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):

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• Rhymes: -əʊʃ

Adjective

gauche (comparative more gauche, superlative most gauche)

1. Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling; apt to make gaffes.
   • 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, not comparable) Having a torsion angle of 60°.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

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

Derived terms

• gauchely
• gaucheness

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)
• Czech: neobratný (cs), neohrabaný
• 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)
• Māori: 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 (“to bend, dodge, warp”), a conflation of Old French gauchier (“to tread”) (from Frankish *walkijan, *walkan, cognate with English walk) + Old French guenchir (“to deviate”) (from Frankish *wenkijan (“to sway, falter”)). Gauche replaced the original Latin-derived word for "left", senestre, in the sixteenth century. Compare Walloon gåtche.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡoʃ/

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Adjective

gauche (plural gauches)

1. left

   Synonym: senestre (dated)

   avoir deux mains gauches ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   se lever du pied gauche ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. awkward, gawky, clumsy

   Synonyms: empoté, lourd, maladroit

Derived terms

• gauchard
• gaucher

Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. the left, the left-hand side

   Coordinate term: droite

   à gauche ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   à votre gauche ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. (politics) the left (the left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group)

   Coordinate term: droite

   de gauche ― left-wing

Derived terms

• gauchiste

Noun

gauche m (plural gauches)

1. (boxing) ellipsis of poing gauche (“left fist”)

   un crochet du gauche ― a left hook

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):

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Noun

gauche f (plural gauches)

1. (Jersey) left