Words at Play : 12 Words That Secretly Come from Body Parts
Definition:
: very beautiful or attractive
About the Word:
We don't think of the first syllable of gorgeous as having anything in common with the gorge in "that makes my gorge rise," but the two may in fact be connected. Gorgeous comes from the Middle English gorgayse, which in turn comes from the Middle French gorgias (meaning 'elegant,' or 'fond of dress'). It's possible that this gorgias comes from an identically spelled word that referred to a wimple or a neckerchief; that gorgias comes from the word gorge, meaning throat.
Example:
"Its gorgeous throat in beauty and brilliancy baffles all competition." — John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, 1832
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