And the word of the day is...

"Gobsmacked"

Those of you of the British persuasion (aka "Bloody Brits") already know about this word. Maybe you even understand what it actually means. A rare few of you might know of its origins. But most of my American friends may have heard of it, guess it means something akin to "stunned", and never utter it.

We have better words.. one of them being the aforementioned  "stunned." Face it, "stunned" is just easier to say and expresses the feeling pretty much "spot on" (which only means "exactly").

Being a twit, and a curious one at that, I looked up "gobsmacked" in the only way I know how anymore... I Googled it. I got 364,000 hits.

Wiktionary defines it thusly:

Etymology

As if smacked (“hit”) in the gob (“mouth (Irish / Scottish gaelic)”).

Attested since 1980s, from Northern English dialect, particularly Liverpool, popularized via television.

I was confused by the "Northern England" reference because I thought Liverpool is a city in southwest England. It turns out I was wrong about that. I am often wrong about things I assumed years ago.  My wife tells me I am often wrong about much more than that.

The Wiktionary implies the word originated sometime in the 80's but it turns out not to be so. A wonderful website called worldwidewords.org has located an instance of its use in 1959 referencing a source for the word as "Malderbury" which it then says does not exist. (I located an "Alderbury", a small town a bit west of Winchester, England, but no Malderbury)

But I like the word.