What’s that you say? You want posts about words, not about feelings? Oh, I weep for you cold-hearted lexiphiles, but here is a word: gimlet-eyed.
I finished William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition a few days ago, and it contained this passage, from the main character’s point of view:
- “He looks somewhat gimlet-eyed now, though maybe she’s misreading some Chinese-American nerd thing, an unabashed intensity of focus.”
As an adjective, the American Heritage Dictionary defines gimlet as:
- Having a penetrating or piercing quality: gimlet eyes.
That derives from the first definition of gimlet as a noun (with picture from Answers.com, where I get the AHD definitions):
- A small hand tool having a spiraled shank, a screw tip, and a cross handle and used for boring holes.
A gimlet is also a drink:
- A cocktail made with vodka or gin, sweetened lime juice, and sometimes effervescent water and garnished with a slice of lime.
The AHD etymology for gimlet:
- Middle English, from Anglo-Norman guimbelet, perhaps from Middle Dutch wimmelkijn, diminutive of wimmel, meaning auger.
I love the term “gimlet eye.” I first heard it when someone used it to compliment me on my editorial skill and since then, I’ve used to to refer to the work of other particularly fine editors.
That’s a great use for gimlet eye. I need to put that in my back pocket for future compliments.