Meanings
plural gomerals · alternative gomerel · alternative gomeril
- ScotlandarchaicFool, simpleton.
[...] to the apparent delectation of immense audiences of gaping gomerals, but to the intense disgust of all sensible people.
1856, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art2 more examples
"But, you gomeral, you belong to my class, and not to your own!" said the old lord, feeling, with a mixture of pain and amusement and impatience, his own ignorance before the superior and melancholy knowledge of life possessed by this boy.
1875, The Story of Valentine, and his Brother, chapter XXXIX, in The Living Age, volume 124, page 563The same faithful gomeral is to despatch this letter by the express along with those of the wiseacres, so that you may hear Tom Fool in company with Solomon.
1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Tee’d Ball”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 221
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰeǵʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰéǵʰōm
- Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰmṓ
- Proto-Germanic*gumô
- Proto-West Germanic*gumō
- Old Englishguma
- Middle Englishgome
- Englishgomeral
Diminutive (by way of -rel) of Middle English gōme (“man, warrior, husband, male servant”), Old English guma (“male, hero”), from Proto-Germanic *gumô (“man, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“man, person”). More at groom.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gomeral. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gomeral
“gomeral.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gomeral. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gomeral,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gomeral.
Source: gomeral on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.