/ˈɡɔː.di/, /ˈɡɔ.di/, /ˈɡɑ.di/
OriginFrom 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.
- Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.”
“Though, I confeſs, Paris has its Charms; but to me they are like thoſe of a Coquette, gay and gavvdy; they ſerve to amuſe vvith, but a Man vvould not chuſe to be marry'd to them.”
“The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with le”
- obsoleteFun; merry; festive.
“Let's have one other gaudy night.”
“And for my strange petition I will make
Amends hereafter by some gaudy day”
“And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...”
- archaicOne of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
“In 1458, the owner of the precious book, which had been taken from the martyr’s body at the block, left a rosary of 50 coral beads with gold gaudies, to his “beloved, most blessed Saint Richard Scrope”
“The circling year was to him like the rosary over which he recited his aves and paternosters; the “gaudies” or larger beads were the holidays set at regular intervals along the string, […]”
“She wore a coral trinket on her arms, / A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, / Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen […]”
- A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally during the long vacation.
“And since then, Mary had married and scarcely been heard of; except that she had haunted the College with a sick persistence, never missing an Old Students’ Meeting or a Gaudy.”
Formsgaudier(comparative) · gaudiest(superlative) · gaudies(plural)