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Gaum vs Gawm - What's the difference?

gaum | gawm |

In dialectal terms the difference between gaum and gawm

is that gaum is to fear while gawm is alternative form of lang=en make sticky, or impair the function of.

As nouns the difference between gaum and gawm

is that gaum is heed; attention while gawm is an alternative spelling of lang=en foolish person.

As verbs the difference between gaum and gawm

is that gaum is to understand; comprehend; consider while gawm is alternative form of lang=en make sticky, or impair the function of.

gaum

English

Etymology 1

The noun is from dialectal (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .

Noun

(en noun)
  • Heed; attention.
  • * 1862 , C. Clough Robinson, The Dialect of Leeds and its Neighbourhood, Illustrated , page 18:
  • "S'cat! s'cat! — set that cat off that barns knee — it al puzzum it!"
    "Ah've tel'd 'em awal abart that tu monny a hunderd times, bud thuh tak no moar gaum o' muh then a stoop."
  • * 1919 , Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, The Taming of Nan , page 31:
  • "Good-night, Uncle Nat," he called. Uncle Nat walked on in grim silence, never turning his head, for quite half a dozen paces. Then he came back to the gate to which Adam had also returned. "Tak' no gaum o' my gruntlin', Addy," asked Uncle.
  • * 1972 , William Mayne, The Incline (ISBN 0525325506), page 141:
  • "Take no gaum ," he said. "I've not heard her. This is between thee and me, Tommy. I'll use but one hand."
    Derived terms
    * gaumish * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (dialectal, obsolete) To understand; comprehend; consider.
  • * 1893 , Keighley Snowden, Tales of the Yorkshire Wolds , page 171:
  • "We said nowt on 't. Ther' no 'casion to stir up trouble. But we all gaumed 'at when he heerd t' sounds o' them 'at com to lowse us he'd crawled off into t' workin's an' brayed his head agean a shou'der o' quartz."
  • * 1896 , James Keighley Snowden, Web of an Old Weaver'', quoted in ''The English Dialect Dictionary (1900 edition):
  • 'Nobody gaums where we are now,' I said.
  • * 1870 , John Christopher Atkinson, Lost'', quoted in ''The English Dialect Dictionary (1900 edition):
  • Aye sir, we gaum ye.
  • (rfv-sense) (dialectal) To pay attention to; take note of; notice.
  • (rfv-sense) (dialectal) To fear.
  • References
    * 1856 , Robert Ferguson, The Northmen in Cumberland & Westmoreland : GAWM. Attention.

    Etymology 2

    Uncertain; perhaps a variant of (m).

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (rfv-sense) (US, and, UK, dialects, Northern England, Appalachia) To handle improperly.
  • * (rfdate) Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation :
  • Don't be mauming and gauming a Body so.
  • (US, and, UK, dialects, chiefly, South Midlands, Southern US, Appalachia) To smear.
  • * 1894 , Rowland Evans Robinson, Danvis Folks'', chapter VI, ''The Paring-Bee , page 117:
  • No, bubby, couldn't hev the wax. Gaum him all up so 't mammy 'd hafter nigh abaout skin him tu git him clean ag'in;
  • * Mark Twain, Little Bessie'', published in 1972 in ''Mark Twain's Fables of Man :
  • Isn't it horrible, mamma! One fly produces fifty-two billions of descendants in 60 days in June and July, and they go and crawl over sick people and wade through pus, and sputa, and foul matter exuding from sores, and gaum themselves with every kind of disease-germ, then they go to everybody's dinner-table and wipe themselves off on the butter
  • * 1930 , Marietta Minnigerode Andrews, Memoirs of a Poor Relation: Being the Story of a Post-war Southern Girl and Her Battle with Destiny , page 293:
  • Butter became in my eyes a gauge of character and gentility, almost of integrity. I watched these ravenous wretches "gaum " their batter-cakes with it, help themselves to more than they really wanted, leaving great golden chunks of it half melted and wholly useless, mixed as it was with gravy
  • * 1990 , Appalachian Journal , volume 18, page 196:
  • Simply gaum them all over with thick claybank mud and throw them into the fire. The clay will bake hard.
  • * (seemoreCites)
  • Derived terms
    * (l) * begaum

    References

    Etymology 3

    .

    Noun

    (-)
  • Grime.
  • * 1913 , William Gerard Chapman, Wine of the Orchard'', in ''Outing: Sport, Adventure, Travel Fiction , volume 61, page 210:
  • "douse your head under the pump and wash some of the gaum off your hands and we'll see what your Aunt Debbie can do for that empty feelin'."
  • * 1927 , Robert Lindsay Mason'', ''The lure of the Great Smokies , page 150:
  • Said 'Black Bill' Walker, of Walker's Valley, in speaking of the forge: 'I never heerd sech a rackity-rack! Ye'd think the heavens was fallin' down! Them fellers aworkin' thar in the sweat an' gaum reminded me more of the gate to the bad place!'
  • * 2000 , Howard Bahr, The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War (ISBN 0312265077), page 106:
  • They thrust their wedge-shaped faces into the light, then, one by one, tried the air with their delicate paper wings. The air bore them up; they circled lazily over the heads of men, they lit on hands and faces and in the gaum of wounds, they died underfoot.

    Etymology 4

    .

    Noun

    (-)
  • A bit, a small amount.
  • * 1939 , Esquire , volume 12, issues 1-3, page 54:
  • When he had let what he deemed was a sufficiency of blood out of the incised vein, he called to Elvira to bring a spoon of "sut" from off the back of the fireplace and a "gaum " of spiderwebs from somewhere or other.
  • * 1978 , Editorials on File , volume 9, issue 2, page 1392:
  • The Rockwellian palette was what Arkansans would call a "gaum " of sentiment— sentimentality, the cynical would say. His paintings were what these same cynics would probably call "representational,"
  • * 1990 , Donald Harington, The Cockroaches of Stay More (ISBN 0679728082), page 191:
  • "There aint a gaum of grub to be found nowheres. If rain was syrup, we'd all be gorged, but there aint enough sup to make a housefly floop his snoot."

    Etymology 5

    Probably a variant of (m) (an Irish English slang term for a foolish person), but possibly related to or influenced by .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A useless person.
  • * 1947 , James Reynolds, A world of horses: A conversation piece , page 229:
  • I saw standing up out of the grass a murderous length of sharp steel. Some gaum of a farm boy had abandoned this scythe while cutting bundles of sourgrass for cattle-breeding.
  • * 1956 , Sean O'Casey, I knock at the door. Pictures in the hallway. [etc] , page 133:
  • I'm no gaum . I'll work th' delivery in such a wise way that neither of the boyos'll fall into the suspicion they had lost as much as a burnt-out match.
  • * 2011 , Liam O'Flaherty, Land (ISBN 1448203880):
  • He's a scrawny gaum of a lad named Tony Regan, the tailor's eldest son.

    Etymology 6

    Variant of , which see for more.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (to make a mess of).
  • * 2005 , Charles Ray, The Tarheel Connection: An Environmental Romance (ISBN 094461969X), page 93:
  • "She'll get plum bereft 'n worried, even git the all'overs, if n the place's all gaumed up."
  • * 2011 , Caroline Miller, Lamb in His Bosom (ISBN 1561456497), page 206:
  • Some gaumed up their whole lives by a-hasteing in this or that thing, taking out their impatience on this or the other body.

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    gawm

    English

    Etymology 1

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (foolish person).
  • * 1892 , The Awkward Squads'', in ''Littell's Living Age , volume 195, page 811:
  • "E-y-e-s front ! Och, luk in front av ye, for the love o' marcy, an' don't be bigger gawms than y'are." Again he took up his parade before the squad.
  • * 2002 , Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea , Vintage 2003, page 10:
  • The farmer would accuse his son of idleness; the son would retort that his father was a drunken gawm .
  • * 2013 , Flann O'Brien, O'Dea's Your Man'', in ''Collected Plays and Teleplays (ISBN 1564789888), page 417:
  • In twenty-wan years in this box I don't believe I've ever pulled down wan of those signal yokes without half-expecting a pint of stout to come out down below somewhere. And isn't it the right gawm I'd look if it did come.

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb)
  • * 1909 , Eugene Wood, The Merry Yule-Tide'', in ''The New England Magazine , page 438:
  • In just about a month to-morrow morning we'll crunch the candy into the rug at every step, and all we touch will be gawmed up and sticky.
  • * 1920 , The Monitor , page 13:
  • A nation cannot get anywhere if it has things gawmed up.
  • * 1905 , Charles Battell Loomis, Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts , page 78:
  • "Might as well be dead as all gawmed up with that fly paper stuff."

    Etymology 3

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • * 1885 , Mary Catherine Rowsell, Traitor Or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-house Plot , page 278:
  • "Ay, 'tis indeed," she went on, "and Mistress Ruth has eyes an' ears, an' uses 'em to better purpose than some folks I know" — and she threw a significant glance at her bewildered better half — "as can only stand gaffin' and gawmin' at a body."
  • * 1888 , W. R. Credland, A Farm in the Fens'', in the ''Papers of the Manchester Literary Club , volume 14, page 267:
  • “Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”
  • * 1897 , J. Carmichael, Man and Beast'', in the ''Monthly Packet , page 392:
  • ‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’
  • * 1897 , James Prior, Ripple and Flood: A Novel , page 368:
  • "What does he want," she said, "gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?"