Goopy

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɡuːpi/

Definitions

1. Having a thick, sticky, and often messy texture that clumps or stretches as it moves
2. Characterized by a viscous and glue-like feel that causes substances to stick or smear easily
3. Describes a substance that is gooey and adhesive, often difficult to clean or separate

Etymology: Goopy is simply goop with the adjective-forming suffix "-y" added, so its history is that of the base word. Goop is the more interesting half. It is an English word whose ultimate ancestry runs back through Proto-Indo-European roots, but its direct lineage in English is the story that matters here: the noun "goop" is the source of the adjective, and the "-y" ending is one of English's most productive ways of turning a noun into a describing word, as in "sandy", "milky" or "bumpy". The suffix itself has a long pedigree. It descends from an Old English ending, "-ig", which carried the sense "full of" or "having the quality of". Over the Middle English period it softened to "-y", the form we use now. That is why so many English adjectives ending in "-y" look like ordinary, unremarkable words: the ending was attached to countless nouns over centuries, and "goopy" is a recent member of that long family.

Synonyms: sticky, viscous, thick, gloppy, slimy

Antonyms: dry, fluid, runny, watery, liquid