Sunday Rest: goosegog. Word Not To Use Today.

Well, if you can say or hear the word goosegog without wincing at its sugary picturesqueness then it's more than I can.

Still, there's always the version goosegob, which is merely disgusting, and therefore a huge improvement.

Look, just say gooseberry, fool!


photo by Uwe Hermann

Word Not To Use Today: goosegog. This is a word for those who feel obliged to be interesting but have only a rudimentary sense of humour. The goose bit is a mystery: it might come from a group of Germanic words (kraus is one of them) meaning curly or crisp, and before that bent or crooked; or it might be just that people decided to call the thing after a goose for no good reason at all. It's irritating to an etymologist, but happens rather a lot. The gog bit is a form of gob, from the Old French gobe, lump, from gober, to gulp down.