gremlin

An American World War II (c. 1942–1943) workplace safety poster featuring gremlins (sense 1.2).

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested:[1]

• A variant of goblin.
• From Irish gruaimín (“gloomy little person”); or from Dutch gremmelen (“to soil, stain; to spoil”), or griemelen, grimmelen (“(obsolete) to abound, teem; to swarm”), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary there is little evidence for such derivations.

The word was popularized, especially in the United States, by the children’s novel The Gremlins (1943) by the British author Roald Dahl (1916–1990),[1] in which gremlins sabotage Royal Air Force aircraft in revenge for the destruction of their forest home to make way for an aircraft factory; the creatures later join forces with the British to fight the Nazis.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɛmlɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɛmlən/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grem‧lin

gremlin (plural gremlins)

1. (originally Britain, aviation, Royal Air Force slang) [from 1920s]
   1. (obsolete) A contemptible person.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonentity

   2. An imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery.
2. (by extension)
   1. Any mysterious, unknown source of mischief or trouble, or the problem created thereby.

      Synonyms: bug, glitch, hitch, typo

      We rechecked everything, and we suspect gremlins in the database.

   2. (surfing, slang) A young, inexperienced surfer, seen as being a nuisance. [from 1960s]

      Synonyms: gremmie, gremmy, grommet

• gremmie, gremmy
• gremlinesque
• gremlinology
• gremlinologist
• misprint gremlin
• typo gremlin

• gremlin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gremlin (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• merling, mingler