gaum

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   in obsolete or regional Northern English, to understand, comprehend, or take notice of

   At first I could not gaum what the old shepherd meant.

2. 2
   noun

   in rare Northern English, heed or attention

   He took no gaum of the warning and continued across the moor.

3. 3
   verb

   in dialect, especially in the southern United States and Appalachia, to smear or cover with a sticky or dirty substance

   The children gaumed the worktable with sticky paste.

4. 4
   noun

   in Appalachian and other dialects, sticky dirt or grime

   He scrubbed the gaum from his hands before supper.

The Northern noun 'heed' is from Middle English gome, borrowed from Old Norse gaum or gaumr, 'heed, attention'; the verb 'understand' arose from it. The dialect verb 'smear' and noun 'grime' are separate in origin: dictionaries treat them as uncertain, perhaps variants of gum or gorm. The shared spelling therefore covers historically distinct dialect words.

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