gaudy

Etymology 1

From Middle English gaudi, from Old French gaudie, from Medieval Latin gaudia. equivalent to gaud (“ornament, trinket”) + -y. Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþō, *walþijō, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld. A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.

adj

1. Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
   A large gaudy, flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume. 1887, Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker
   Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling. 9 January 2005, Thomas Hauser, Marilyn Cole Lownes, “How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring”, in The Observer
2. (obsolete) Fun; merry; festive.

noun

1. (archaic) One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
   In 1458, the owner of the precious book, which had been taken from the martyr’s body at the block, left a rosary of 50 coral beads with gold gaudies, to his “beloved, most blessed Saint Richard Scrope,” to help in his canonization, with a prayer to God that it might be granted of His great grace. 1894, James Hamilton Wylie, History of England under Henry the Fourth, volume 2, pages 356–7
   The circling year was to him like the rosary over which he recited his aves and paternosters; the “gaudies” or larger beads were the holidays set at regular intervals along the string, […] 1919, Frederic William Moorman, Plays of the Ridings, pages 8–9
   She wore a coral trinket on her arms, / A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, / Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen […] 1952 [1387–1400], Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales, page 29

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy and jo.

noun

1. (Oxford University) A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally during the long vacation.