goof

Etymology

It is probably a variant from English of the dialect word goff, a foolish clown or simpleton,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which goes back to goffe (1570),^[4][5] probably from Middle French goffe (“awkward, stupid”),^[4][5][2][8] of uncertain origin;^[4][5] Klein traces the French word to Italian goffo.^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline mention another possibility: that goffe developed from Middle English goffen (“to speak frivolously”), perhaps from Old English gegaf (“buffoonery”) and gaffetung (“scoffing”), related to gaff, to jest.^[4][5][10] The Shorter Oxford calls the word of unknown origin, and the Oxford Dictionary of English compares goop.^[11][12] The verb is from the noun.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fool or blunderer: 1902, in a Colorado newspaper poem about "muggled goofs" in the legislature.^[13] The OED, Barnhart and Etymonline date the noun to 1916, in the Saturday Evening Post,^[3][4][5] and Merriam-Webster to 1915.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began as American slang for a stupid person.^[4][5] As a verb it first meant to waste time or dawdle, and it has also meant to blunder since 1941;^[5][4][3] goof off arose in the Second World War armed forces for making a mistake at drill and by 1945 meant to loaf.^[5][4][3] The noun "blunder" (about 1954–5) followed, probably influenced by the verb and by gaffe.^[4][5][3] In drug slang goof was a drinker or marijuana smoker, and the verb meant to take a stupefying dose (1944), often as goofed up.^[13][3]

Timeline

• 1902 – a fool, a blunderer.^[13] The OED and Barnhart date this sense to 1916.^[3][4]
• 1922 – verb, to waste time.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from 1932, in James T. Farrell's Young Lonigan.^[3][2]
• 1941 – verb, to blunder, make a mistake; also goof off.^[3][4][5]
• 1944 – to take a stupefying dose of a drug.^[3]
• 1955 – noun, a mistake, especially in an entertainment.^[3] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to about 1954.^[4][5]
• 1960 – to bungle something.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) A silly or stupid person: Don't stand there like a goof, help me.^[2][7][3]
2. (informal) A foolish mistake; a blunder or gaffe.^[2][7][3]

Verb

1. (informal) To make a foolish mistake.^[2][7][3]
2. (informal) To spend time idly or foolishly; to fool around, usually with off or around: The boys goofed around at the mall all afternoon.^[2][7][3]
3. (informal) To bungle or mess up something, often with up.^[7][3]
4. (slang) To dope with drugs.^[7][3]

Word family

• goofproof
• goof-off
• goofball
• goofy

Related words

• goff
• gaffe

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com