Gormless

[natalie_1982]

If you're brainless, you mey have been acting if you didn;t have a brain. If you are gormless, how are you acting and is there such word as gorm?

[woofgang]

dunno but here's a great website http://www.gorm.com/

[natalie_1982]

Genius. Ask Gorm.

[natalie_1982]

I now have a viking name. Natalie the Beserk. Oh dear...

[undercovers]

"Undercovers The Peevish" - doesn't really strike fear into your very soul does it

[natalie_1982]

LMAO at undercovers

[natalie_1982]

My base age is 25, although I'm 21 and I don't know what a base age is.

[Quizmonster]

There was a word 'gorm' with varied meanings such as a fool, a bit of chewing tobacco and - in the USA - a muddle. However, the original meaning was just 'understanding' and that is where the 'gormless' came in. If you're gormless, you lack understanding or are a bit of an idiot.

[Quizmonster]

By the way, my Viking name is Quizmonster Bloodaxe...I like it!

[natalie_1982]

Methinks quizmonster has the best viking name ;) Certainly more frightening than Undercovers the peevish.

[bernardo]

The origin of the wrods gorm and gormless were explained in "The Old Man of Lochnagar" by Prince Charles.

[Quizmonster]

Are you sure it wasn't his sequel mountain-story, 'The Old Man of Cairngorm', B?

[saffstar]

Eeeuw! I am saffstar the boneless!

[woofgang]

woofgang wartooth, I may get cards printed...

[verbiphobe]

Ketil Hairy-Cheek here. Not too sure if I should change it by deed poll,though.

[Ewood27]

Ewood Nohair. I don't like this game!

[bernardo]

No, Q, I'm not at all sure! I didn't even know there was a sequel!

Or are you winding me up perhaps?

[Quizmonster]

Dear B, I've never read the Prince's literary output, so I just assumed that you were winding us up! Accordingly, I replied in kind, on the basis that Lochnagar is a mountain in the Cairngorms. My particular 'Old Man' was made up, but there have long been tales of "The Grey Man of Ben Macdhui", a 'ghost' which frequents another peak in the region.

Do tell us what Charlie offers as the 'gorm' explanation.

[thewillow]

The Irish word for 'blue' is 'gorm'. I always believed that when someone (a boy or man) was described as 'gormless', it meant he was unlucky at birth for some reason or 'born without the blue'. Blue being the traditional colour for baby boys.

[Jackanory]

OK I have The Old Man of Lochnagar, by H.R.H. Prince Charles, before me and I quote: '...but this would only be possible when their research scientists had discovered the right formula for a potion which, when drunk, would shrink the old man to the size of the little people, who were called Gorms. (That is why people living in Scotland who don't have Gorms on their hills are called "gormless".' I'm Yerk Bloodaxe by the way!

[Jackanory]

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, that is.