{"id":24092,"date":"2025-06-26T13:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24092"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:42:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:42:20","slug":"gasting-flabbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24092","title":{"rendered":"Gasting Flabbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is a <strong>flabbergast<\/strong> a <strong>gast<\/strong> that&#8217;s <strong>flabbered<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/piper\/3933456087\/in\/photolist-6ZzZsp-a26gro-2mhLCor-2ozt3Z8-2VzsvU-j6jQbq-9BvDcw-eiKZGL-76zS3Z-HLoaR-6S7TXf-aQQF3T-w9woVc-j6eyEf-51QHwb-w1B8k-6VMYyw-8DXfNM-JLXyUN-5KtHfa-K5YmJM-bg9aRF-K9XdQy-K5YmXT-JLXyJh-dVqyBb-K9XdNu-K9XdLf-a1V2XV-K9XdMh-K5YmGc-K9XdQ3-JLXyLw-K9XdR5-K5YmNK-K5YmCK-dVqyW9-2pjPuL4-wMgLo-wMgKR-wMgMe-9uwAtu-3cdrvE-wMgN5-7kcWwv-9hqy3F-2o6S3wc-858ZXC-cjy6dS-3LisnY\" title=\"He&#x27;s on my Chair\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2547\/3933456087_6a4dfb4736_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" alt=\"He&#x27;s on my Chair\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>A flabbergast<\/strong> is an awkward person, or an overwhelming confusion, shock or surprise, and <strong>to flabbergast<\/strong> is to overwhelm with bewilderment, or to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner.<\/p>\n<p>Related words include<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>flabbergastion<\/strong> = bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted<\/li>\n<li><strong>flabbergaster<\/strong> = a person, thing, fact or event that is flabbergasting, or that causes extreme shock; a state of surprise or fear<\/li>\n<li><strong>flabbergastly<\/strong> = surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flabbergast<\/strong> possibly comes from the Suffolk dialect words <strong>flap(py)<\/strong> (to strike) and <strong>aghast<\/strong> (terrified), or from Scots <strong>flabrigast<\/strong> (to swagger, boast, quite worn out, extremely fatigued). There are also versions of this word from Lancashire: <strong>flobbergrast<\/strong> and Northampton: <strong>flappergast<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/flabbergast#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aghast<\/strong> means terrified; struck with amazement, or showing signs of terror or horror. It comes from Middle English <em>agast<\/em>, from <em>agasten<\/em> (to frighten or terrify), from Old English <em>g\u01e3stan<\/em> (to frighten, gast, torment, afflict), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*gaistijan<\/em>, from Proto-Germanic <em>*gaistijan\u0105<\/em>, which is related to <em>*gaistaz<\/em> (fear, terror, spirit, ghost, mind) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/aghast#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related words include <strong>ghost<\/strong>, <strong>ghast<\/strong> (an evil spirit or monster) and <strong>ghastly<\/strong> in English, <strong>gast<\/strong> (ghost) in Swedish, <strong>geest<\/strong> (ghost, spirit, mind) in Dutch, and <strong>Geist<\/strong> (spirit, essense, mind, ghost) in German [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/gaistaz\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, <strong>gast<\/strong> is an old word in English meaning to frighten, and also comes from the same roots [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gast#English\">source<\/a>], as does the Old English word <em>g\u0101st<\/em> (spirit, ghost, breath, demon), which became <em>gost \/ gast \/ gaast \/ goost \/ goste<\/em> in Middle English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gast#Old_English\">source<\/a>]. It acquired an h and became <em>ghoost<\/em> in the late 15th century due to influence from the Flemish word <em>gheest<\/em>, possibly thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wynkyn_de_Worde\">Wynkyn de Worde<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/William_Caxton\">William Caxton<\/a>&#8216;s assistant [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ghost#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is a flabbergast a gast that&#8217;s flabbered? Let&#8217;s find out. A flabbergast is an awkward person, or an overwhelming confusion, shock or surprise, and to flabbergast is to overwhelm with bewilderment, or to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner. Related words include flabbergastion = bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,116,10,26,33,44,202,67,78],"tags":[442,164,158,444,445,446,443,441,138,281,162,163],"class_list":["post-24092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-language","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-west-germanic","category-swedish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-dutch","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-flabbergast","tag-flabbergasted","tag-flabbergasting","tag-flemish","tag-german","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-swedish","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24092"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24100,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24092\/revisions\/24100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}