gooey

Etymology

It is formed from English goo + -y,^[2][3][4][5] originally in American English.^[5][4][6] The noun goo, a sticky substance, is of uncertain origin: the OED suggests either a shortening of burgoo, a thick porridge, or an expressive formation,^[2][5][7] while Etymonline thinks goo is more probably a back-formation from gooey.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nasty, unpleasant, distasteful: 1901, in Dialect Notes, as a regional word of New York.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang gives the same 1901 record as American college slang for weird or creepy,^[8] and Etymonline dates the word to 1893.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED holds that "soft and sticky", recorded only from 1903, is the primary sense, from which the early sense "unpleasant" developed, much as with icky.^[2] The figurative sense "sentimental, mawkish" followed, which Green's Dictionary of Slang records from 1916 and the OED from 1918.^[8][2] As a noun, gooey first appears in Australian English, in 1906, as a contemptuous term for a weak or foolish man;^[2][8] Australian slang also used it for saliva or a lump of phlegm (1919),^[8] and in First World War army slang it meant hash.^[2]

Timeline

• 1901 – nasty, distasteful; weird (US regional and college slang, now rare).^[2][8]
• 1903 – soft and sticky, viscous.^[2]
• 1906 – noun, a weak or foolish man (Australian).^[2][8]
• 1916 – sentimental, mawkish.^[8] The OED dates this sense to 1918.^[2]
• 1923 – noun, hash, in army slang of the First World War (obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Soft and sticky; viscous: a tray of gooey caramel brownies.^[9][3][2]
2. (informal) Too sentimental or effusive; cloying: a gooey love song.^[9][3][2][8]
3. (US, now rare) Nasty or weird.^[2][8]

Noun

1. (Australian, informal) A weak or foolish man; also, something gooey.^[2][8]

Related words

• goo
• burgoo

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins