- Today's Word
Gobsmacked
[GOB-smakt]
Definition
- (verb) To be utterly astonished, astounded, or speechless due to a surprising or shocking event. It’s a state of being so taken aback that you’re left with your mouth agape, unable to find the right words to express your amazement or disbelief.
Example
Upon learning that she had won the lottery jackpot, Sarah was absolutely gobsmacked, staring at the ticket in stunned silence for several minutes before erupting in joyful screams.
Fun Fact
“Gobsmacked” is a quintessentially British slang term that has gained popularity around the world. The word is believed to have originated in the 1980s, likely as a combination of the words “gob,” which is a colloquial term for the mouth, and “smack,” meaning to strike or hit. This colorful combination perfectly captures the idea of being so shocked that it’s as if you’ve been smacked in the mouth, leaving you speechless. The term has become so widely used that it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2005, cementing its place in the English language as a vivid and expressive way to describe a state of utter astonishment.
(adjective) Having a sleepy, drowsy quality; inducing or characterized by a state of near-sleep or heavy lethargy.
The somnolent afternoon stretched on without purpose — the heat too heavy, the air too still, the world too quiet for anything as ambitious as a decision.
Somnolent derives from the Latin somnolentus, meaning “sleepy,” rooted in somnus — “sleep.” The same root gives us insomnia, somnambulism — sleepwalking — and Somnus, the Roman god of sleep whose Greek equivalent Hypnos gave us hypnosis. It entered English in the 15th century, used in medical contexts to describe a pathological heaviness of sleep before expanding into its broader sense of anything drowsy, slow, and pleasantly difficult to resist.