gauvison

English

Noun

gauvison (plural not attested)

1. (archaic, Northern England, especially Yorkshire) Alternative spelling of gorbuson
   • 1870 March, “The Chronicles of Heatherthorp”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 18, number 121, page 70:

     'And why sud ye, Mr. Arthur? 'specially aboot such a gauvison as awd Barjona. He's like a coo, has twea sides to his tung, a rough un and a smooth un; but neebody minds him, sir, nae matter which side he licks 'em with.'

   • 1878 January, “Local Notes and Queries”, in The Yorkshire Magazine, volume 2, number 16, page 192:

     Gauvison.—It is customary amongst the country people of Yorkshire, when wishing to designate a person as awkward and foolish to call him "a gurt Gauvison!" Whence comes the word "Gauvison?" Is it, as I have heard it asserted, the name of an old Yorkshire highwayman; and if so why should his name be used with such a significance?

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:gorbuson.

Derived terms

• gauvey
• gauving

Adjective

gauvison (comparative more gauvison, superlative most gauvison)

1. (archaic, Yorkshire) Silly; foolish.
   • 1875, James Burnley, “A Run Through Craven”, in West Riding Sketches, pages 83–84:

     At this inn we hear the Craven dialect in all its purity, but as a certain anonymous writer has said in that speech, "What a fearful girt gauvison mun he be at frames to larn th' talk of another country afore he parfitly knaws his awn," I will not attempt to transfer this peculiar language to print.

References

• Wright, Joseph (1900) The English Dialect Dictionary‎^[1], volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 581