gorm

• IPA^(key): /ɡɔː(ɹ)m/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: gaum (non-rhotic)

A variant of gaum (from Middle English gome, from Old Norse gaumr, from Proto-Germanic *gaumō; compare Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌿𐌼𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gaumjan, “observe”)), with the ‘r’ being a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English. See gaum for more.

• gawm (UK dialects)

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

1. (UK and US, dialects) To gawk; to stare or gape.
   • 1922, Elinor Mordaunt, Laura Creichton, page 110:

     Passing through St. George's Square, Lupus Street, Chichester Street, he scarcely saw a soul; then, quite suddenly, he struck a dense crowd, kept back by the police, standing gorming at a great jagged hole in a high blank wall, a glimpse, the merest glimpse of more broken walls, shattered chimneys.

   • 1901, New Outlook, volume 67, page 408:

     "Tell Sannah to bring some coffee," said the young woman to a diminutive Kaffir boy, who stood gorming at us with round black eyes.

   • 1990, Jean Ure, Play Nimrod for him, →ISBN, page 96:

     They would stand in silence, mindlessly gorming at each other, […]

   • 2005, Lynne Truss, The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels, →ISBN:

     In particular, we like to emphasize that, far from wasting our childhoods (not to mention adulthoods) mindlessly gorming at The Virginian and The Avengers, we spent those couch-potato years in rigorous preparation for our chosen career.

• goam (“see, recognize, take notice of”)
• gaum (“understand; comprehend; consider”)

A variant of gaum (itself likely a variant of gum), with the ‘r’ being a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

1. Alternative form of gaum (“to smear”)
   • 1884, Margaret Elizabeth Majendie, Out of their element, page 70:

     'It is quite ruined.'
     'How did she do it? What a pity!'
     'With paint—assisting in the painting of a garden-gate. She told me the pleasure of "gorming" it on was too irresistible to be resisted; and the poor little new gown in done for.'

   • 1909, Augusta Kortrecht, “The Widow Mary”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 48, page 182:

     "It was in a little sprinkler bottle, an' I gormed it onto my vittles good an' thick. Lordy, Lordy, an' now I got to die!"

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:gorm.

• Bennett Wood Green, Word-book of Virginia Folk-speech (1912), page 202:

  Gorm, v. To smear, as with anything sticky. When a child has smeared its face with something soft and sticky, they say: "Look how you have gormed your face."

From gormandize/gormandise.

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

1. (colloquial, rare) To devour; to wolf down (food).
   • 1885, James Johonnot, Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs, and Their Kin, page 105:

     The bear came up to the berries and stopped. Not accustomed to eat out of a pail, he tipped it over, and nosed about the fruit "gorming" it down, mixed with leaves and dirt, […]

   • 1920, Outdoor Recreation: The Magazine that Brings the Outdoors In:

     […] an itinerant bruin and with naught on his hands but time and an appetite, [to] wander from ravine to ravine and gorm down this delectable fruit.

   • 1980, Michael G. Karni, Finnish Americana, page 5:

     As Luohi said later, "He gormed it. Nay, he didn't eat it. He gormed it, the pig."

Supposed by some to be related to gormless and/or gorming, and by others to be related to gorm (“smear”) (itself probably related to gum (“make sticky; impair the functioning of”)).^[1]

• gaum

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

1. (dialectal, chiefly Southern US, Appalachia, New England, often with ‘up’) To make a mess of.
   • 1910, English Mechanic and World of Science, volume 91, page 273:

     I find the cheap shilling self-filling pen advertised in these pages excellent value—quite equal to that of fountain-pens I have paid ten times as much for. It is also durable. I am a careless person, and prefer to discard it when I have “gormed” it […]

   • 2008, Christine Blevins, Midwife of the Blue Ridge, →ISBN, page 133:

     "Truth is, I've gormed it all up, Alistair. When it comes t' women — nice women anyway — I'm as caw-handed and cork-brained as any pimply boy."

• Maine lingo: boiled owls, billdads & wazzats (1975), page 114: "A man who bungles a job has gormed it. Anybody who stumbles over his own feet is gormy."
• Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech (1993, →ISBN: "gorm: [v. to make a mess.] If a house be in disorder it is said to be all gormed or gaumed up (B 368)."

• gormed

• grom

From Proto-Brythonic *gurm, from Proto-Celtic *gurmos, cognate with Welsh gwrm (“brown, dark”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɔrm/

gorm

1. dark brown

• gell (“light brown”)

Colors in Cornish · liwyow (layout · text)

gwynn	loos, glas	du
rudh; kogh	rudhvelyn; gell, gorm	melyn
	gwyrdh, glas
		glas
glasrudh, purpur	majenta; purpur, glasrudh	gwynnrudh, kigliw

From Old Irish gorm (“blue”), from Proto-Celtic *gurmos. Cognate with Welsh gwrm (“dusky”).

• (Kerry) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌɾˠəmˠ/^[1]
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔɾˠəmˠ/, /ˈɡɞɾˠəmˠ/^[2]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔɾˠəmˠ/^[3]

gorm (genitive singular masculine goirm, genitive singular feminine goirme, plural gorma, comparative goirme)

1. blue
2. black (of people, skin)
3. (heraldry) azure

Obsolete spellings

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
gorm	ghorm	ngorm
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Colors in Irish · dathanna (layout · text)

bán	liath	dubh
dearg; corcairdhearg	oráiste, flannbhuí; donn	buí; bánbhuí
líoma-ghlas, glas líoma	glas, uaine	dath an mhiontais
cian	gormghlas, spéirghorm	gorm
corcairghorm; indeagó	maigeanta; corcra	bándearg

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “gorm”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

From Old Irish gorm (“blue”), from Proto-Celtic *gurmos. Same root as Welsh gwrm (“dusky”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔrɔ̃m/

gorm (comparative guirme)

1. blue, dark blue
2. green; blue-green to verdant (natural; of plants, especially grass)

   Synonym: glas

3. green (inexperienced or naive)
4. black, dark gray (of animal fur)
5. black (of skin colour)

• The use of gorm for animals or people refers to the colours reflected in the fur or skin, which can have a blue iridescence.

• gar

Colors in Scottish Gaelic · dathan (layout · text)

bàn, geal	glas	dubh
dearg; ruadh	orains; donn	buidhe; donn
uaine	uaine	gorm
liath; glas	liath	gorm
purpaidh; guirmean	pinc; purpaidh	pinc

• MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “gorm”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN