Geck

See also: geck

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Geck.

Proper noun

Geck (plural Gecks)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Geck is the 35096^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 642 individuals. Geck is most common among White (83.49%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Geck”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 25.

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German geck (“fool”). The same word has later been borrowed again from Ripuarian as jeck (“crazy”) and Jeck (“fool; carnival reveler”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛk/, [ɡɛkʰ]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

Geck m (weak or strong, genitive Gecken or (uncommon, nonstandard) Gecks, plural Gecken or (uncommon, nonstandard) Gecke, diminutive Geckchen n)

1. (derogatory, somewhat dated) dandy, fop, poser (vain, narcissistic man)

   Synonyms: Laffe, Stutzer, Zierbengel, (chiefly Austria, fashionable in the 1880s) Gigerl, (colloquial) Lackaffe, (colloquial, regional) Fatzke, (youth slang) Poser

   • 1766, Christoph Martin Wieland, chapter 2, in Geschichte des Agathon‎^[1], volume 1:

     Ich versichre dich, Hippias, meine Geduld reicht nicht mehr zu, alle Torheiten dieser abgeschmackten Gecken auszustehen, welche die Sprache der Empfindung reden wollen und nichts fühlen; […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• The word can be declined according to the weak or the strong pattern. The weak declension is standard and is the only one mentioned in dictionaries.

Declension

Declension of Geck [masculine, weak // strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Geck	die	Gecken, Gecke1
genitive	eines	des	Gecken, Gecks1	der	Gecken, Gecke1
dative	einem	dem	Gecken, Geck1	den	Gecken
accusative	einen	den	Gecken, Geck1	die	Gecken, Gecke1

¹Uncommon, nonstandard.

Derived terms

• Geckerei

Further reading

• “Geck” in Duden online
• “Geck”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)
• “Geck” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡæk/

Noun

Geck m (plural Gecken)

1. (derogatory) madman, lunatic, maniac
2. fool, crackpot