Gomer

Filed Under January 2008, columns 

Dear Word Detective: I am curious about the origins of the Southern U.S. slang words “goomer” and “gomer.” I think they are insulting words, probably close to meaning “moron” or “slack-jawed yokel.” I have only seen them used in 1960s TV programs such as “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Andy Griffith Show” (and that show’s offshoot, “Gomer Pyle, USMC”). We’re not talking Faulkner scripts here, but still, I don’t believe the writers for these series came up with the words out of thin air; there probably is some basis in real language. I’ll be darned it I can find it. I suspect that the “gomer” is an offshoot of “goomer,” based on the dates of the TV programs’ creation. “GOMER” these days is an insulting term among medical personnel for a person who goes to the Emergency Room for no valid reason (standing for “Get Out of My Emergency Room”). I would suspect a Scottish or Irish root for the word, but again, darned if I can find it. Can you help? — Barb H.

Wow, flashback time. The shows you mention, along with “Petticoat Junction,” “The Real McCoys,” “Green Acres” and the “Andy Griffith” sequel “Mayberry RFD,” were staples of US television in the 1960s, a period when “rural sitcoms” were enormously popular. Set mostly in the American South (”The Beverly Hillbillies,” set in Beverly Hills, being an obvious exception), they portrayed small town life as simple, safe, and valuing family and tradition instead of the modern foibles of “city slickers.” Well, maybe. As a city slicker living the “Green Acres” lifestyle in rural Ohio the last few years, I’ve seen no lack of weirdness around here.

There seems to be a bit of debate over the origin of “gomer” (or its variant “goomer”) as a derogatory term meaning “stupid or inept person.” It first appeared in print in 1967 as military slang meaning “a clumsy or stupid trainee,” a sense almost certainly derived from Jim Nabor’s character Gomer Pyle, a dimwitted but sweet-natured garage attendant, on The Andy Griffith Show. Nabor’s character was spun off in 1964 to star in “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.,” wherein Gomer spent five years in training (bad sign right there) driving his drill instructor nuts with his ineptitude.

The proper name “Gomer” is rare but not unknown (there are two “Gomers” in the Bible, one of them a woman), but prior to Nabor’s TV portrayal there is no record of “Gomer” ever being used as a synonym for “idiot” or “yokel.”

The use of “Gomer” as hospital slang for an unwanted ER patient actually appeared in print a few years before the military usage, but most authorities also trace it to Gomer Pyle and “gomer” as slang for “fool.” The acronymic explanation (”Get Out of My Emergency Room”) shows signs of having been concocted after the fact (the explanation didn’t show up in print until 1978) and is considered implausible. Among other problems, it’s very unlikely that an imperative verb phrase (”Get out…”) would be used as a slang noun (”Here comes that gomer again”).

So the writers of “The Andy Griffith Show” didn’t invent the name “Gomer,” but they probably did pick it for its rural sound (there have been suggestions that “Homer” was considered but rejected as over-used), and Jim Nabor’s talent as an actor did the rest.

 

 

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