Meaning

noun an awkward stupid person

verb look with amazement; look stupidly

originFrom a variant of gowk, from Middle English gowke, goke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”). Cognate with Danish gøg, Swedish gök, German Gauch, Old English ġēac. Compare also French gauche, and English gawky and gallock.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0