gawk
A cuckoo; (sometimes by extension) any gawky bird.
Noun
- A cuckoo; (sometimes by extension) any gawky bird.
- His morning prey he craveth; So crowed the gawk of carrion⁶ […] (6) Gawk of carrion = [kenning for] raven. - 1898, Ari Thorgilsson, The Book of the Settlement of Iceland, page 105:
- Some sneakingly fly watching, as the hawk; Or, as a Cuckoo, grow to limb as a gawk. - 1910, John Bunyan Robinson, Bird Or Feather Convention ..., page 11:
- I WONDER if you know the cuckoos. […] In Scotlad the popular name for the cuckoo is "the gawk," which means fool. […] But our American cuckoos are a long way from gawks. Indeed many farmers consider them fine weather...
- A fool; a simpleton; a stupid or clumsy person.
- A Duke of Weissenfels, for instance; foolish old gawk, whom Wilhehnina Princess Royal recollects for his distracted notions, — which were well shaken out of him by Wilhelmina's Brother afterwards. - 1855, Thomas...
Origin
From a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac. Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.
Forms
Derived
Noun Entry 2
- A conspicuous or stupid stare or gape; an instance of gawking.
- ... the gawks and gapes of townsfolk as stares of admiration. - 1991, Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly:
- ... the gawks and gapes of those who'd expected him to be long dead,[…] - 2017 March 7, Cat Sparks, Lotus Blue, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
Origin
Perhaps from English dialectal gaw (“to stare; gawk”) + -k, as in talk, stalk, etc., ultimately from Old Norse gá (“to heed”).