GAPESEED

PRONUNCIATION: (GAYP-seed)

MEANING: noun: 1. One who stares especially with an open mouth. 2. Something that is an object of staring: anything unusual.

ETYMOLOGY: From gape + seed, from Old Norse gapa (to open the mouth, stare) + Old English saed (seed). Earliest documented use: 1598.

NOTES: The idiom “to sow gapeseed” means to gape at something (say, a fair) instead of doing some useful work (say, sowing wheat). This, and other idioms, hint at our agrarian roots:
-to sow wild oats
-to sow the seeds (of something)
-as you sow, so shall you reap, etc.

___________________________________

GA-PESTED - afflicted with peach-tree borer

GAPESEYED - bowed so as to display cleavage

AGAPESEED - the source of Greek love