gauche
UK /ɡəʊʃ/ · US /ɡoʊʃ/ adjective
Forms gaucher gauchest
- adjective Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling; apt to make gaffes.
- adjective (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
- adjective (chemistry, not comparable) Having a torsion angle of 60°.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from French gauche (“left, awkward”), from gauchir (“to veer, turn”), from Old French gaucher (“to trample, walk clumsily”), from Frankish *walkan (“to full, trample”), from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (“to full, roll up”). Akin to Old High German walchan (“to knead”), Old English wealcian (“to roll up, curl”) and English walk, Old Norse valka (“to drag about”). More at walk.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Left handed; hence, awkward; clumsy.
- noun Winding; twisted; warped; --applied to curves and surfaces.
Etymology [F.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gauche”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details