Word for Wednesday: Gum

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A few days of pain caused by a sore gum started thoughts about this strange little word.

Germanic origin. Old English goma; related to the German gaumen ‘roof of the mouth’.

Used in Northern England as an exclamation used for emphasis: "if he wants it done soon, by gum, he'd better get cracking!"

Modern chewing gum was first developed in the 1860s. The oldest piece of chewing gum found so far is 9000 years old.

Fortunately the pain has now gone. As Ella Fitzgerald once sang:

First you pop,
then you stop
The gum gets big and round.
Blow your troubles,
Way like bubbles...

Gummy facts from yumyumgum and Online Etymology Dictionary


26 Nov 2014
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