gush

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gushen, also goshen and gusche,^[2][3][4] but sources dispute its origin.^[3][5] The OED thinks it was probably formed in Middle English as an imitation of the sound, since the word is lacking in Old English and in the other Germanic languages,^[3] and most recent dictionaries also call it probably or perhaps imitative.^{[6][7][4][8][9][10]} Others connect it with Scandinavian, comparing Old Norse gjósa (“to spurt, gush”) and Icelandic gusa (“to gush”):^{[11][5][12][13][2]} Etymonline takes it from or after these, or from Low German, and traces them through Proto-Indo-European *gus- to *gheu- (“to pour”), which would make it a relative of geyser.^[11] The OED calls that derivation phonologically untenable, and Barnhart cites its objection.^[3][5] Skeat also compares Middle Dutch guysen and Dutch gudsen (“to gush”),^[12] and Weekley gutsen and German giessen (“to pour”).^[14] Dictionary.com sees a sound-symbolic word, comparing gust and rush.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To rush out in a copious stream, of blood and entrails: before 1400, in the alliterative Morte Arthure.^[3][2][5] Barnhart finds an earlier gosshien, to make noises in the stomach, probably before 1200,^[5] which the MED enters with a question mark as a sense of the same verb.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the flow of liquid the verb spread in the 16th century to people or body parts streaming with blood or tears (1530), to whatever issues copiously in a figurative way (1577), and to the transitive sense of pouring something out (before 1555).^[3] The noun, a sudden flow of liquid, followed about 1682.^[3][5][4] It too extended to bursts of wind, light, heat and sound from 1704, and to outbursts of feeling from 1720, in Pope's Homer;^[3] Dickens has a gush of tobacco, a whiff of it, in 1841,^[3][16] and Bartlett records it in 1859 as American for a great abundance.^[3][16] For effusive or sentimental talk, the OED's first record of the verb is Webster's dictionary of 1864,^[3] but Green's Dictionary of Slang has gushing from 1863,^[16] and Barnhart and Etymonline give 1873.^[5][11] The noun in this sense is from 1863 in Green's and 1866 in the OED.^[16][3] A gusher was an effusive person in 1864, and an oil well that flows without pumping in 1886.^[5] In Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northamptonshire and East Anglia a gush was also a gust of wind, and in Scotland a gush-hole was an outlet in a wall for water.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1200 – gosshien, to make noises in the stomach.^[5]
• before 1400 – to flow or rush out in a copious stream.^[3][2]
• 1530 – of a person or a part of the body, to stream with blood or tears.^[3]
• before 1555 – transitive, to pour out copiously.^[3]
• 1577 – figurative, to issue or be emitted copiously.^[3]
• c. 1682 – noun, a sudden flow of liquid.^[3][4]
• 1704 – noun, a rush of wind, a burst of light, heat or sound.^[3]
• 1720 – noun, an outburst of feeling.^[3]
• 1841 – noun, a whiff, a smell.^[3][16]
• 1849 – noun, in American use, a great abundance.^[16]
• 1863 – to talk with effusive sentiment; noun, such talk.^[16] The OED has the verb from 1864 and the noun from 1866.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To flow out suddenly and in great quantity, or to make something do so: Water gushed from the broken main.^[18][4][3]
2. To stream with blood, tears or another fluid.^[3][4]
3. To speak or act in an overly effusive or sentimental way: The visitors gushed about the view.^[18][3][16]

Noun

1. A sudden, copious flow of liquid, or the liquid itself: a gush of cold water from the tap.^[18][4][3]
2. A sudden burst of sound, light or feeling.^[4][3]
3. An extravagant and insincere show of admiration or sentiment.^[18][3][16]
4. In dialect, a gust of wind.^[17][3]

Word family

• gushingly
• gusher
• gushy
• outgush

Related words

• geyser
• ingot

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins