gaudy
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L23355 on Wikidata ↗noun
- jargon term in UK student life
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɔː.di/ / /ˈɡɔ.di/ / /ˈɡɑ.di/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English gaudi, from Old French gaudie, from Medieval Latin gaudia. equivalent to gaud (“ornament, trinket”) + -y. Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþō, *walþijō, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld. A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.
- Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.”
“Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.”
- Fun; merry; festive.
“Let's have one other gaudy night.”
“And for my strange petition I will make Amends hereafter by some gaudy day”
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy and jo.
- A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally during the long vacation.
“And since then, Mary had married and scarcely been heard of; except that she had haunted the College with a sick persistence, never missing an Old Students’ Meeting or a Gaudy.”