gobo

English
WOTD – 10 January 2022

Etymology 1
Gobos (sense 2) in the form of panels used to create several acoustic environments for sound recording.
A spotlight with a gobo (sense 3) installed in front of it.
An illustration showing how a gobo (sense 3; centre) is used with a light source to cast a pattern on to a surface.

Uncertain; possibly from go-b(etween) (“intermediary, middleman”) +‎ -o (suffix forming informal terms).[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡəʊbəʊ/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡoʊˌboʊ/
  • Rhymes: -əʊbəʊ
  • Hyphenation: go‧bo

Noun

gobo (plural gobos or goboes) (originally US)

  1. (film, photography, television) A screen (often in disc form) placed between a light and an illuminated actor or object in order to diffuse the glare. [from early 20th c.]
    • 1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103:
      At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes.
  2. (sound engineering) A device used to shield a microphone from extraneous sounds. [from early 20th c.]
  3. (theater) A template inserted over a light source to control the shape of the thrown light. [from early 20th c.]
Translations

Etymology 2
Gobo, the taproots of young edible burdock plants (Arctium lappa), are eaten as a root vegetable.

Borrowed from Japanese ごぼう, ゴボウ, 牛蒡 (gobō, “burdock (Arctium lappa); burdock root”), from Middle Chinese 牛蒡 (ŋɨu pɑŋX, “burdock”) (modern Mandarin 牛蒡 (niúbàng)), from 牛 (ŋɨu, “ox”) + 蒡 (pɑŋX, a word only appearing in the compound 牛蒡), possibly because oxen have been observed eating the leaves of the plant when recovering from illness.[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

gobo (uncountable)

  1. The taproot of young edible burdock plants (Arctium lappa), eaten as a root vegetable. [from early 19th c.]
    • 1988, Brant S. Rogers, Culinary Botany: The Essential Handbook:
      While oriental and specialty markets sell Gobo root to Japanese cooks, herbal medicine enthusiasts use common burdock.
Translations

References
  1. “gobo, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2019; “gobo1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. “gobo, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “gobo2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

Slovene

Noun

gobo

  1. accusative/instrumental singular of goba
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