gormless

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   British informal: lacking intelligence, sense, or initiative

   He looked gormless when asked where he had left the keys.

From dialectal English gaum (“heed, attention”) + -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“heed, attention”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

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