Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 7, 2012

guff \guhff\, noun:
1. Empty or foolish talk; nonsense.
2. Insolent talk.

So don't give me any of your guff, young fellow. And don't think I'm sore. But I get tired of guff — I'll take it from a fool or from a book reviewer but I won't take it from a friend who knows a lot better.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up"

“They'll probably keep me quite busy.” “What was all the guff about another woman?”
-- Ernest Hemingway, "The Garden of Eden"

Guff is of unknown origin. It arose in the 1820s in the United States. It may be related to a Norwegian dialectic word gufs meaning "puff of wind."

Dictionary.com Word of the Day