Other forms: gashes, gashed, gashing
A gash is a long deep cut in flesh. A nasty gash, gashed his hand, a gash across the arm.
It is longer and deeper than a cut and usually needs closing, which is what distinguishes it in first aid and in reporting. It also describes damage to anything: a gash in the hull, a gash in the earth. Note gashed; and that the word came through French from the Greek for an engraver, so a gash is something scored.
1noungashA long deep cut in flesh.
“He had a deep gash on his leg from the broken glass.”
2verbcutTo cut long and deep.
“She gashed her hand on a rusty nail while climbing the fence.”
gash is a deep cut.
Old French garser comes through Vulgar Latin from Greek charakter, an engraver or a mark scored. Character comes from the same scoring.
Ancient Greek
χαρακτήρ — engraver
Vulgar Latin
*charaxāre
Old French
garser
Middle English
garsen
English, today
gash
Alteration of older garsh, from Middle English garsen, from Old French garser, jarsier (Modern French gercer), from Vulgar Latin charaxāre, from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (“engraver”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Cutting & Breaking