Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/7/2009 Posts: 33,212 Neurons: 98,814 Location: Inside Farlex computers
|
gauche(adjective) Lacking social polish; tactless. Synonyms: unpolished, gracelessUsage: Wendy was quite friendly, but her lack of manners made her seem gauche in formal settings.
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 6/30/2010 Posts: 10,965 Neurons: 32,652 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
|
Not informal. Informal is fine in the right situation Ubu.
Incidentally, more anti-lefthanded propaganda.
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 4/18/2014 Posts: 305 Neurons: 253,078 Location: Mayo, Connaught, Ireland
|
1 a : lacking in social graces or ease, tact, and familiarity with polite usage : likely or inclined to commit social blunders especially from lack of experience or training
b : lacking finish or exhibiting crudity (as of style, form, or technique)
<an excellent script and cast wasted by gauche direction> <a gauche turn of phrase>
2: not plane : twisted, skew
<a gauche curve>
3: being or designed for use with the left hand : left-hand
<a gauche or left-hand weapon, used mainly for guarding and reserve — Foster Harris>
Origin of GAUCHE
French, literally, left, on the left, from Middle French, from gauchir to turn aside, swerve, alteration of guenchir, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wankōn to stagger, sway — more at wink
First Known Use: 1751 (sense 1a)
Synonyms:
clumsy, awkward, graceless, inelegant, rough-hewn, rustic (also rustical), stiff, stilted, uncomfortable, uneasy, ungraceful, wooden
Antonyms:
graceful, suave, urbane
Related Words:
angular, gawky, lubberly, ungainly; boorish, clownish, uncouth; abashed, discomfited, discomforted, discomposed, disconcerted, discountenanced, embarrassed; self-conscious; agitated, bothered, chagrined, dismayed, disquieted, distressed, disturbed, fazed, flustered, jittery, jumpy, mortified, nervous, nonplussed (also nonplused), perturbed, rattled, unhinged, unsettled, upset; diffident, insecure, meek, modest, self-doubting, timid, unassertive, unassuming, unpretentious
Near Antonyms:
assured, calm, collected, composed, confident, cool, placid, poised, secure, self-assured, self-confident, self-possessed, serene, tranquil, undisturbed, unperturbed
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/22/2014 Posts: 2,292 Neurons: 2,599,403 Location: Lilyfield, New South Wales, Australia
|
excaelis wrote:Incidentally, more anti-lefthanded propaganda. Yes, it's sinister isn't it? Gosh I'm gauche!
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 2/4/2014 Posts: 8,578 Neurons: 7,191,559 Location: Bogotá, Bogota D.C., Colombia
|
Notes: Today's Word is used so rarely it hasn't even lost its French spelling. In French, AU is pronounced [o], CH sounds like English [sh], and all final Es are silent. Perhaps it explains the rather, well, gauche adverb, gauchely, and two nouns, gaucheness and gaucherie, of which the latter is clearly the lovelier. Word History: Borrowed from French gauche "left", which replaced Old French sinistre in the 15th century. The French word gauche may have come from Old High German welc "soft, languid, weak" whence German welk "withered, faded, languid", but no one seems to know for sure. The ambiguity of English right is no coincidence; the right-handed majority has historically associated its preferred hand with correctness and righteousness, while presuming something wrong with the left. The Latin word for right, dexter, is the source of dexterous. Adroit comes from the French phrase à droit "to the right". On the other hand (so to speak), not only does today's word reflect the left-handed prejudice, but the same is true of sinister, which comes from the earlier Old French word meaning "left" mentioned above. Indeed, even today some of us call a dubious remark a "left-handed" compliment". Of course it is very gauche to drool on your lobster at the dinner table, but other examples of gaucherie may occur at table. http://www.alphadictionary.com/
|
 Rank: Newbie
Joined: 9/21/2014 Posts: 5 Neurons: 243 Location: Hamden, Connecticut, United States
|
"too gauche to leave the room when the conversation became intimate"
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 7/26/2014 Posts: 1,405 Neurons: 37,072 Location: Apache Junction, Arizona, United States
|
Numerous members of the Republican political party,to say they are gauche, would be the greatest understatement of the past 200 year's, as they consider women less then second class citizens.
|
 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/27/2014 Posts: 1,526 Neurons: 55,870 Location: Santiago, Santiago, Chile
|
Quotation by Iris Murdoch
"A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the façade of his appearance."
(Iris Murdoch (b. 1919), British novelist, philosopher. Bradley Pearson, in The Black Prince, pt. 1).
|