Wacky Word Wednesday – Gobemouche

Gobemouche /gɔbəmuʃ/ -noun One who believes any absurdity

Everyone has that one friend who believes anything, no matter how absurd it may seem. Despite that, no one likes being called naïve. Wacky Word Wednesday is here to the rescue with a new and fun term- gobemouche.

Although not a commonly used word, gobemouche is definitely a creative addition to any conversation. This word derives from the French gober (to swallow) and mouche (fly), literally translating into “fly-swallower.”   To understand the meaning of the metaphor, one must imagine an individual so fascinated by a story that their jaw drops open, welcoming flies to enter. The sense of this word is said to have been promoted by Charles Favart in his play La Soirée des Boulevards (1759), which featured a character named Gobemouche.

For a short time, the English language borrowed this potentially useful word; however it has not made any prominent appearances in the last two centuries.  The last appearance was in Travels in the Great Desert Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 by James Richardson, published in 1848:

These people are great gobemouches; they always report the most incredible things.

According to newspaper archives, however, the word has been used in spelling bees to stump contestants.

As usual, here are a couple of sentences with today’s wacky word:

• I can’t believe that gobemouche still hasn’t learned from his mistakes!
• John is a total gobemouche, he believed that he could win a new phone by simply filling out a survey!

That’s it for today, but we’ll be back next week, with more tricks up our sleeves- the fun never ends with Wacky Word Wednesday!

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

If you’re interested in learning more about CSOFT’s globalization and localization solutions, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for automatic updates.