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gauche

Etymology and origin of the English word gauche

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡəʊʃ/ (UK); /ɡoʊʃ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gauche (“left; awkward”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Middle French gauchir “to turn aside, swerve”,[2][3][4][6] from Old French gauchier “to trample, walk clumsily”,[3][2] which is of Germanic origin.[2][3][4][6] Barnhart derives it from Frankish *walkan, related to walk,[3] while Etymonline gives Proto-Germanic *wankjan “to totter”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lacking tact or ease of manner; awkward (1751, in Lord Chesterfield).[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In French the word meant “awkward, awry” before it replaced senestre as the word for “left”.[4] In English it has always described social awkwardness.[7][2][5] Technical uses followed in mathematics, “skew, not plane” (1879),[7][5] and in chemistry for a particular staggered molecular shape (1940).[7][1]

Timeline

  • 15th century – French gauche replaces senestre for “left”.[4]
  • 1751 – awkward, tactless.[7][3][4][5]
  • 1879 – mathematics, skew.[7]
  • 1940 – chemistry, a staggered conformation.[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Lacking social grace or experience; tactless or awkward.
  2. Crudely made or done.
  3. (mathematics) Not lying in one plane; skew.

Word family

  • gauchely
  • gaucheness

Usage notes

Random House gives inept, clumsy, maladroit, coarse, gross and uncouth as synonyms.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gauche.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/gauche. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·