gore

gore¹ blood

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English gor (“dung, dirt, filth”),^[1][6][3][7] from Proto-Germanic *gurą.^[5] Its cognates are goor (“filth, mud”) and modern goor (“dingy, foul”), gor (“animal dung”) and gor (“cud, slimy matter”);^[1][6][3][8] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford also relate gor and gôr (“pus”).^[9][7] Old English also had gyre (“dung”), from the same base.^[3][8] The further origin is uncertain:^[6][3] Merriam-Webster connects it with gearu (“ready”), the source of yare,^[2] and Weekley wondered about a link with gären (“to ferment”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dung or filth of any kind: the OED's first example is in the Old English Corpus Glossary,^[1] and Barnhart dates Old English gor to about 725, in Exodus, and the Middle English form gore to about 1150.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense "blood that has been shed and has thickened" is first recorded in 1563, in the Mirror for Magistrates,^[1][11] often in the phrase blood and gore, which has a Dutch parallel in bloed en goor;^[3][1] Etymonline notes gore-blood a little earlier, in the 1550s.^[6] The new sense was used chiefly of blood spilled in battle,^[6][3] and Weekley explains its poetic use as a rendering of cruor (“shed blood”).^[10] Johnson (1755) defined the word as blood, and especially clotted blood, quoting Spenser and Dryden.^[12] The old meaning "dung, dirt" became obsolete except in dialect,^[1][7] and Merriam-Webster still labels it dialectal British.^[2] Weekley saw the older sense in gorbelly, a fat paunch, and gorcrow, the carrion crow.^[10] From 1799 the word was also used humorously for ordinary blood, as in a letter of Coleridge.^[1] The adjective gory goes back to a Scottish gorrie "bloody" of about 1480,^[3] and in recent use the noun stands for bloodshed and killing as shown on screen or in print.^[13][2]

Timeline

• Old English – gor, dung, dirt.^[1][3]
• c. 1150 – Middle English gore.^[3]
• c. 1480 – Scottish gorrie, bloody.^[3]
• 1550s – gore-blood.^[6]
• 1563 – blood shed and clotted.^[1][3]
• 1741 – hardened rheum from the eyes (until 1808).^[1]
• 1799 – humorously, blood.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Blood that has been shed, especially when clotted.
2. (informal) Violent bloodshed and slaughter, especially when shown in graphic detail in a film or book: The reviewer warned readers about the amount of gore in the final scene.
3. (dialect) Dirt or filth; dung.

Word family

• gory
• gorehound

gore² triangular piece

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gore, inherited from Old English gāra (“angular point, corner of land, promontory”),^{[1][6][3][14]} from Proto-Germanic *gaizô.^[6][5] Its cognates include gāra, ghere (modern geer), gēro (modern Gehre) and geiri.^[1][7][3] The word is related to gār (“spear”), the source of gar and of the first part of garlic, the link being the triangular shape of a spearhead;^{[1][9][8][15]} Etymonline traces both to a PIE word for a stick or spear, *ǵʰaisós.^[6][5] The Old High German word passed into the Romance languages, whence English gyron.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A point of land or a promontory, in Alfred's translation of Orosius (before 899).^[1][11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was applied to the front part of a skirt, wider at the bottom, and to the lap of a gown: Barnhart and the OED date this to about 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[11][1][6] The sense "triangular piece of cloth", used to make a garment wider at one point than another, is recorded from about 1325,^[1][9] and the verb "to cut into gores, to furnish with gores" from 1548.^[1][2][3] On land, gore named a wedge-shaped strip at the side of an irregular field from 1523,^[1][7] and in America a strip or tract left between larger divisions from 1650;^[1][7] Etymonline notes the New England use for a strip left out when townships were surveyed, and Merriam-Webster an unorganized part of a county in Maine and Vermont.^[6][2] In heraldry a gore is a charge bounded by two curved lines (1562).^[1] From 1796 it also named each of the curved triangular pieces that make up a globe, a balloon or an umbrella.^[1][10] In dialect the land sense survives from Scotland to Somerset, for the short ridges at the corner of an irregular ploughed field,^[16] and Weekley cites the London street name Kensington Gore.^[10]

Timeline

• before 899 – a point of land, a promontory.^[1][11]
• c. 1250 – the front part of a skirt.^[1][3]
• c. 1325 – a triangular piece of cloth in a garment.^[1]
• 1523 – a wedge-shaped strip at the side of a field.^[1]
• 1548 – verb: to cut into gores.^[1][2][3]
• 1562 – (heraldry) a charge bounded by curved lines.^[1]
• 1650 – a strip of land between larger divisions (chiefly US).^[1]
• 1796 – a segment of a globe, balloon or umbrella.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tapering or triangular piece of cloth sewn into a skirt, sail or other article to vary its width.
2. One of the curved, tapering sections that make up a globe, balloon or umbrella.
3. A small triangular piece of land, or (chiefly US) a strip of land lying between larger divisions such as townships.

Verb

1. To cut into a tapering shape, or to make with gores: She gored the skirt so that it flared at the hem.

gore³ to pierce

Etymology

The verb is goren, with an early Scots form gorren.^[2][3] The American Heritage and Merriam-Webster derive it, probably, from gore, gare (“spear”), gār,^{[14][2][6][17]} but the OED, while granting that this fits the sense, thinks the Scots form gorre tells against it,^[1] and Hoad, Barnhart and the Shorter Oxford call the origin unknown or uncertain.^[9][3][7] Weekley, who also doubts the spear, compared an obsolete jurre (“to butt”) and gorrette (“a jolt, a thump”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pierce or stab deeply with a sharp weapon: Barnhart dates it to before 1400,^[3] Etymonline to about 1400,^[6] and the OED's first example is from the alliterative Wars of Alexander (before 1400–1450).^[1]

Semantic evolution

The specific sense, of a bull, ox or other horned animal piercing with its horns, is first recorded about 1530, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry,^[1][7] and it is now the usual one; the general sense "to stab deeply" became obsolete except in this use.^[1][7] The verb was used without an object from about 1632, in Middleton and Webster.^[1] In British black slang it was revived for stabbing someone with a knife, in a novel of 2001 set in 1981.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to pierce or stab deeply.^[1][6][3]
• c. 1530 – of a horned animal, to pierce with the horns.^[1]
• c. 1632 – used without an object.^[1]
• 2001 – (UK black slang) to stab with a knife.^[18]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. Of an animal, to pierce or wound with a horn or tusk: The farmer was gored by a young bull.
2. (rare) To pierce or stab deeply with a pointed weapon.