Subscribe- gomer
- n. an undesirable hospital patient
The word “gomer” is often traced back to the acronym GOMER, or “Get Out of My Emergency Room,” in essence a difficult or troublesome patient. However, that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. Especially insofar as it’s also used as a general pejorative for a stupid person, it likely comes from the character Gomer Pyle. In fact, I was completely unaware of its medical connotations, having only known it in the sense of “What a bunch of gomers.”
Incidentally, it’s also the name of a Jewish patriarch in the book of Genesis (10:2-3).
For a more detailed explanation about the word’s popular folk etymology, see this great entry at Wormtalk and Slugspeak.
rob
/ Wednesday, February 7th, 2007Watch more Scrubs, imo