Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday August 7, 2012
guff \guhff\
, noun:
1. Empty or foolish talk; nonsense.
2. Insolent talk.
So don't give me any of your guff, young fellow. And don't think I'm sore. But I get tired of guff — I'll take it from a fool or from a book reviewer but I won't take it from a friend who knows a lot better.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up
“They'll probably keep me quite busy.” “What was all the guff about another woman?”
-- Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden
Guff is of unknown origin. It arose in the 1820s in the United States. It may be related to a Norwegian dialectic word gufs meaning "puff of wind."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for guff
