Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A man.
  • noun An obsolete) or dialectal form of gum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Heed; attention; notice; care.
  • noun A man.
  • noun obsolete lord; Lord; God.
  • noun dialectal Blunted teeth on a saw.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gome, gome, from Old Norse gaumr, gaum ("heed, attention, care"), from Proto-Germanic *gaumō (“attention”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰow-, *gʰowē- (“to perceive, note, ensure, provide for”). Cognate with Old English ġīeme ("care"), Old English ġīeman ("to care for, heal; correct, reprove; take notice of, take heed to, regard, observe; take charge of, control"). More at gaum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English goom, gome, from Old English guma ("man, lord, hero"), from Proto-Germanic *gumô (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰm̥mō. Cognate with Scots gome ("man"), Norwegian gume ("man"), Icelandic gumi ("man"), Latin homo ("man").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps from dialectal goom, goome ("gum, palate"). More at gum.

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Examples

  • Michael Donner for The Wall Street Journal GUM (pronounced "goom"), Moscow's most famous department store, runs the length of Red Square.

    Moscow Deco 2008

  • Lower and lower crouched the Monumwezi, drawing apart with their deep "goom"; drawing suddenly to a common centre with the sharp

    The Land of Footprints Stewart Edward White 1909

  • In the Buli language of Ghana children say "goom-jigi."

    Alan Singer: An Atheist Celebrates Rosh Hashanah 2010

  • Complete with little bride and goom cows you had to have been there...

    You, Too, Can Have Teletubby Poo Jen 2008

  • The rest of his party were crowding into the living-goom, two of the musket men appearing from the bedroom into which they must have made their way by another window.

    Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962

  • A door, thrown open in the midships bulkhead, revealed a dining-goom, an oblong table with white damask, glittering silver, sparkling glasses, while more stewards in white ducks were ranged against the bulkhead.

    Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962

  • The uncanny blue gleam lit the room, but soon the haze of smoke made everything dim, and the fumes of the burning sulphur offended their nostrils as the fireworks hissed and roared, while Hornblower went on lighting fuses and thrusting the blue lights where they would he most effective in living-goom and bedroom.

    Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962

  • It never occurred to him that we were still as far as ever from the goal, and that it would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination _goom_ was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _guma_ as that it was a corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we should be able to find out the meaning of the English word

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 31, May, 1860 Various

  • The impressive utterers of the _goom-zup_ shibboleth, the slayers of the symbolical lion, carried on still.

    The Leopard Woman Stewart Edward White 1909

  • All outside the focus of the dancers turned gray -- _goom, zup! goom, zup!

    The Leopard Woman Stewart Edward White 1909

Comments

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  • The original spelling of groom.

    June 30, 2009

  • Where did the r come from?

    July 1, 2009

  • Pirates gatecrashed the nuptials.

    July 1, 2009

  • a goom with a view *belongs in a list 'change one letter'*

    May 6, 2010