Link Centre Dictionary

gaudy

UK/ˈɡɔːdi/ US/ˈɡoːdɪj/ uncommon archaic obsolete
adjective (2) noun (1)

adjective

1.

tastelessly showy

  • “a flash car”
  • “a flashy ring”
  • “garish colors”
  • “a gaudy costume”
  • “loud sport shirts”
  • “a meretricious yet stylish book”
  • “tawdry ornaments”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

noun

1.

a celebratory feast held annually at one of the colleges in a British university

Origin

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.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.