gaudy

Meanings

Adjective

• very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner
• fun; merry; festive

Noun

• One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
• A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.

Related

Similar words

• tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy

Origin

• Origin uncertain; perhaps from gaud + -y, perhaps ultimately from Old French gaudir.
• Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy, from Old French gaude, galde, from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþō, *walþijō, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld.
• A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.
• Latin gaudium ("joy"). joy.