gobsmacked
/ˈɡɒbsmakt
/adjective British informal
Utterly astonished; astounded: the locals were gobsmacked when us lot trooped in...
- There are still some things in life which leave me utterly gobsmacked.
- I'd never been so utterly gobsmacked by the beauty of a place.
- Have you then seen the same old coffin dodger like ten years later and been utterly gobsmacked to see them still alive and kicking?
Derivatives
gobsmacking
- Not as gobsmacking as the first Alias collection, but really, these comics grabbed me and have not yet let me go.
- It is gobsmacking and unfortunately all too predictable of a Londoncentric art world.
- Even more cosmetics are bought in Japan than in the USA and a gobsmacking 49 percent of the world's fashion luxury goods are bought by the Japanese, mainly when travelling.
Origin
1980s: from gob3 + smack1, with reference to being shocked by a blow to the mouth, or to clapping a hand to one's mouth in astonishment.
The word gobsmacked presumably refers either to the shock of being hit in the mouth or to the action of clapping your hand to your mouth in astonishment. Gob, an informal word for ‘mouth’ (mid 16th century), may come from Scottish Gaelic gob ‘beak or mouth’. Gab, as in the gift of the gab and the adjective gabby, both early 18th century, are variants of gob. There is another gob (Late Middle English), ‘a lump of something’, that came into English from Old French gobe ‘mouthful or lump’ which may also be Celtic: gobble (early 17th century) is probably based on this gob.