13.1 guff

Where & When: I found the word 'guff' while watching the movie, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), last night. It was said by one of the main characters, Royal Tenenbaum, about 30 minutes into the movie, when he was speaking to one of his sons, Chas. Royal said something to Chas, who made a sort of grunting noise. Then Royal said in response, "Don't give me that guff."

Anderson, W. 2001. The Royal Tenenbaums [Motion picture]. United States: American Empirical Pictures.

Definition: Guff is defined as "verbal abuse"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guff

Level of Familiarity: I have watched this movie several times before and never realized that Royal said the word 'guff' before. Even before the movie, I do not recall hearing the word before.

Reflective Commentary: After listening to the dialogue between Chas and Royal, this word stuck out to me. I was curious to what 'guff' meant. I knew it was in reference to what Chas said, or at least the noise he made. After looking up I can see the Royal mean that Chas shouldn't have made his grunt/sign noise in response to Royal talking about dying of cancer. Royal expected Chas to be more sympathetic and did not want the verbal abuse of a grunt. Overall I like the word gruff and think it would be a useful word to know. When someone says a mean or sarcastic comment, you could response to them and say exactly what Royal said. Guff appears to a word that could be common so I wonder if I have heard it before, but never realized it. After all I have watched the movie quite a few times and never really heard it until last night.


Royal, left. Chas, right.