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单词 gobemouche
释义

gobemouchen.

Brit. /ˈɡɒbmuːʃ/, U.S. /ˌɡoʊbˈmuʃ/
Forms:

α. 1800s gobes mouches (plural), 1800s– gobemouches (singular, rare).

β. 1800s– gobemouche, 1800s– gobemouches (plural).

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French gobe-mouches.
Etymology: < French gobe-mouches credulous person (1782; < gober to swallow, to eat (1549 in Middle French; < the base of gobe gob n.1) + mouches , plural of mouche fly (see mouche n.)); in β. forms with reinterpretation of the final -s as marking the plural of the whole compound.Compare Middle French Gobemousche idler, time-waster (1547 as the name of a literary character). French gobe-mouches can also denote the bird called ‘flycatcher’ (compare flycatcher n. 2) (1611 in Cotgrave); compare the following early, apparently isolated example of this use in an English context:1792 J. Leslie tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Birds III. 175 They might as well be taken for magpies, jays, blackbirds, loriots, and gobe-mouches, &c. In French the form gobe-mouches is normally used both in the singular and the plural, although a singular gobe-mouche (with the second element in the singular) is also attested, especially in early use. The plural form gobes mouches (compare quot. 1818) apparently reflects a former irregular plural form in French (18th cent. or earlier). Compare the following slightly earlier example of the French expression in an English context:1810 L. Goldsmith Secret Hist. Cabinet Bonaparte 148 The royalists in Paris, who are in general des gobes mouches, men who swallow greedily and ignorantly every idle tale or surmise.
Now rare.
A person who believes everything he or she is told; a gullible or credulous person.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > belief, trust, confidence > over-readiness to believe, credulity > [noun] > credulous person
credulous1583
easy weener1604
credulist1616
swallow1625
crediblea1674
camel-swallower1802
gobemouche1818
swallower1821
unphilosopher1829
stiffy1965
1818 E. Blaquière tr. F. Pananti Narr. Resid. Algiers 52 Such a representation the gobes mouches of Florence [It. certi Fiorentinelli] might have readily magnified into a change of religion.
1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 43 Their idle stories are often believed by the gobemouche class of book-making travellers.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 Aug. 3 Those Continental gobemouches whose gift for believing the incredible almost approaches to genius.
1903 A. Lang Valet's Trag. & Other Stud. vi. 158 Not men to be deceived by the gossip of every gobemouche.
1991 R. Goldstein Dark Sister viii. 145 This vital cognitive organ [sc. scepticism] had..undergone such a wasting process of disease and atrophy as to leave poor old Hodgson a quivering gobe-mouche of spiritualism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1818
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