Goochland is named after the Gooch family. The name is of Welsh origin, and meant red. Cf. Welsh goch /goχ/.

So the pronunciation and spelling have drifted a lot since the family showed up in the New World. Of course, that's nothing new.

The name reminds me of someone talking baby talk while tickling a baby, i.e. "goochy-goochy-goochy!" One more example of how many pebbles got mixed in with the salad of our multi-linguistic heritage.

I've come across several people with the last name of Gooch. Probably the most famous (outside the USA of course), is Graham Gooch, who was an England Test cricketer; he retired about ten years ago.

I've not heard the name in the U.S., though apparently it is slang for the perineal area in a man...that space between the scrotum and anus.

that space between the scrotum and anus.

Taint?

Or vulva and anus? Why not both genders?

Why not both genders?

Maybe she was using the male apparatus as the generic term. Like with pronouns.

You mean when you put the two nominatives together they become genitive?

"She?" Do you mean me? I was only citing what I'd found here. Believe me, it's not a professional term for the perineum.

[By the way, I asked my kids if they'd heard of the word "gooch" to mean the area between the scrotum and the anus. They said no, but answered another question I had. They said, "That's the taint." That's when I understood z's post!]

"She?" Do you mean me? I was only citing what I'd found here. Believe me, it's not a professional term for the perineum.

Sorry. The onliest terms I've read or heard for the perineum is either taint or perineum. There's a folk etymology that goers along with the former: 'Tain't one or the other."

You mean when you put the two nominatives together they become genitive?

Huh? Not sure I understand. If you put two nominatives together they agree with one another. If you're talking about nominal compounds, the -s possessive is oftentimes elided. Baseball, truck driver, &c.

[Added an elided -s.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd, August 06, 2010 06:05

Sorry, z, it was a very feeble attempt at a pun.

Is taint a nasty word? When I asked my kids about it, they rather cringed. But then they said it wasn't a nasty word (i.e. disgusting, like cunt), when I asked them. I think I had just embarrassed them, but I really wasn't sure.

No, taint isn't a nasty word. But the definition of it can be pretty crude, depending on what you substitute for one or the other (see z's definition - "'Tain't one or the other."