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Mar 6, 2012
This week's theme
Slang

This week's words
phat
goo-goo
props
glom
shambolic

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

goo-goo

PRONUNCIATION:
(goo-goo)

MEANING:
adjective: Amorous.
noun: A naive advocate of a political reform.

ETYMOLOGY:
For adjective: Perhaps from goggle (to stare with bulging eyes). Earliest documented use: 1900.
For noun: Shortening of "good government". Earliest documented use: 1912.

USAGE:
"Of course former rivals morph into allies all the time. John McCain now makes goo-goo eyes at Romney."
Frank Bruni; Embracing the Pretzel; The New York Times; Jan 16, 2012.

"His once frequent talk of changing Washington helped create the impression that Obama was a goo-goo, a dreamer, when he is in fact more of a realist than a radical."
Jon Meacham; What Happened to Obama's Armageddon?; Newsweek (New York); May 14, 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison." And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful." -Kahlil Gibran, poet and artist (1883-1931)

What they say

“Garg works in the great tradition of Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis... Garg, however, is more fun.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune


More articles

Anu Garg on words

“We’re all surrounded by words like air, and we all need them even though they are often invisible, just like air.”

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