I’d be gobsmacked to see any ‘Godsmacking’ these days

Today’s question:

I always thought the expression was “Godsmacked,” and I thought I understood. What is “gobsmacked”?

Well, I couldn’t find anything that suggested a “godsmacked” origin, but when you think about it, such a word might be useful in a biblical sort of way:

“And yea and verily when the pharaoh realized the children of Israel mightly had given him the old slipperoo, he waxed wroth. And verily I tell you his heart was hardened, and he summoned his charioteers to follow the Hebrew children and give them a good talkingto. But the Lord had his own wrath pretty well waxed by then, and the pharaoh’s army and charioteers were drowned in the sea. They were godsmacked.”

That works for me, but it isn’t even close to the truth.

“Gob” is a word for “mouth” from the dialect of northern England and southern Scotland. It is possible the phrase “gift of gab” came from gob.

As for “smacked,” that should be fairly self-explanatory.

So, to be gobsmacked is to be astounded or struck speechless or flabbergasted, as in, “When Sigourney Weaver knocked on my door and invited me to see a Diamondbacks game in her private luxury box, I was gobsmacked.”

I am told that use of the word was mostly confined to the neighborhoods of its origin until the late 1950s, when gritty dramas set in northern England became popular.

Did you see the 1971 movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” with Gene Wilder? One of Wonka’s creations was the “gobstopper,” what we call jawbreakers.