gobsmacked
to be totally surprised (speechless)
TRANSLATION
gobsmacked = verblüfft bzw. sprachlos sein --- GOOGLE INDEX gobsmacked: approximately 750,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Ros Johnson, head of biology at the school, said she was GOBSMACKED when test results from classes using the 3D technology were compared to those without it. "The 3D results were significantly better," she said.
(BBC News)
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Two 12-year-old Kiwi boys have GOBSMACKED police by stealing a tanker and ploughing it through a security fence with one on the wheel and the other on the pedals. The brazen boys stole the truck from a major construction site soon after the unsuspecting workers clocked off on Sunday in the northern New Zealand town of Whangarei.
(www.news.com.au)
(BBC News)
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Two 12-year-old Kiwi boys have GOBSMACKED police by stealing a tanker and ploughing it through a security fence with one on the wheel and the other on the pedals. The brazen boys stole the truck from a major construction site soon after the unsuspecting workers clocked off on Sunday in the northern New Zealand town of Whangarei.
(www.news.com.au)
Did you
know?
gobsmacked
adjective
- so shocked that you cannot speak
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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The word gobsmacked is as British as fish and chips, just not as tasty. It stems from a Northern England/Southern Scotland dialect and combines gob, slang for the mouth, with the verb smack, which in this context probably derives from the sense of a sharp blow or slap that would leave one speechless.
Although there is evidence that gobsmacked was used as early as the 1950s, it really wasn't popularised until the 1980s. This has been attributed to the writers of several British television series set in Northern England who began using it in the mid-80s. It wasn't long before some of the large newspapers adopted it, giving the word mainstream status.
American columnist and self-proclaimed linguist William Safire was impressed enough by the word to write an article about it in the New York Times in 2004. Gobsmacked received another major lift in the U.S. after Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle won "Britain's Got Talent" show in 2009. In a CNN interview, she was quoted as saying: "I'm gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked!" Some of the newspapers who reported this quote were themselves gobsmacked with the word and felt obligated to provide its American readers with a definition.
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SYNONYMS
astounded, astonished, blown away, bowled over, flabbergasted, stunned, taken aback
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I was gobsmacked when he told us he was leaving the company."
adjective
- so shocked that you cannot speak
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
The word gobsmacked is as British as fish and chips, just not as tasty. It stems from a Northern England/Southern Scotland dialect and combines gob, slang for the mouth, with the verb smack, which in this context probably derives from the sense of a sharp blow or slap that would leave one speechless.
Although there is evidence that gobsmacked was used as early as the 1950s, it really wasn't popularised until the 1980s. This has been attributed to the writers of several British television series set in Northern England who began using it in the mid-80s. It wasn't long before some of the large newspapers adopted it, giving the word mainstream status.
American columnist and self-proclaimed linguist William Safire was impressed enough by the word to write an article about it in the New York Times in 2004. Gobsmacked received another major lift in the U.S. after Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle won "Britain's Got Talent" show in 2009. In a CNN interview, she was quoted as saying: "I'm gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked!" Some of the newspapers who reported this quote were themselves gobsmacked with the word and felt obligated to provide its American readers with a definition.
---
SYNONYMS
astounded, astonished, blown away, bowled over, flabbergasted, stunned, taken aback
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I was gobsmacked when he told us he was leaving the company."
