gussy

English

Etymology

1952, apparently from Gussy (adjective), schoolyard slang for “overly dressed” (1940); perhaps related to gussie (“effeminate man”) (1901) and somehow connected to Gussie, the nickname for Augusta and Augustus.[1][2][3][4]

Verb

gussy (third-person singular simple present gussies, present participle gussying, simple past and past participle gussied)

  1. (chiefly US) To dress up or decorate in a showy way.

Derived terms

References
  1. “gussy”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN: “Perhaps from Australian slang gussie, an effeminate man, from Gussie”.
  2. “gussy up”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present: “probably from the name Gussie”.
  3. “gussy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022: “perhaps from Gussie”.
  4. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “gussy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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