gaunt

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English gaunt, gawnt, gawnte, gant (“lean, slender, thin, gaunt”); further etymology uncertain. Speculated origins include: from a North Germanic/Scandinavian source related to Old Norse gandr (“magic staff; stick”) (the ancestor of Icelandic gandur (“magic staff”) and Norwegian gand (“thin, pointed stick; tall, thin man”)), from Proto-Germanic *gandaz (“stick; staff”). Other suggested Germanic cognates include Swedish gank (“(dialectal) lean, emaciated horse”); Danish gand, gan, Norwegian gana (“cut-off tree limbs”); Bavarian Gunten (“kind of peg or wedge”). These words have all been connected to *gunþiz (“battle”) or its ultimate source, but this comparison presents semantic and phonetic difficulties. from Old French: The NED/OED (1900) suggests it could be a "graphic adoption" of Old French gant, a variant spelling of gent (“elegant; nice, pleasant; noble”) modern French gent), from Latin gēns (“clan, tribe; country, nation; family; people”), from Proto-Italic *gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis, from the root *ǵenh₁- (“to produce, to beget, to give birth”). (It could not be an oral borrowing since the Old French word started with [dʒ], not [ɡ], due to the palatalization of Latin "ge"; compare jaunty from French gentil.) If this etymology is correct, the early, now-obsolete positive or neutral sense 4.1 ("slender") was apparently original. Spitzer 1944 argues it is more likely to be from the Norman version of Old French jau(l)net (“yellowish”), diminutive of jaune (“yellow”), from Latin galbinus (the palatalization of Latin "ga" did not occur in northern French dialects). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) enPR: gônt, IPA(key): /ɡɔːnt/, (archaic) /ɡɑːnt/ (General American) enPR: gônt, IPA(key): /ɡɔnt/ (cot–caught merger) enPR: gänt, IPA(key): /ɡɑnt/ Rhymes: -ɔːnt === Adjective === gaunt (comparative gaunter, superlative gauntest) Angular, bony, and lean. Unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard. Synonyms: scraggy, scrawny, skinny (figurative) Of a place or thing: bleak, desolate. (rare) Greedy; also, hungry, ravenous. (obsolete) With a positive or neutral connotation: not overweight; lean, slender, slim. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:slender Antonyms: see Thesaurus:obese, Thesaurus:overweight (figurative) Of a sound: suggesting bleakness and desolation. ==== Alternative forms ==== gant (dialectal, Scotland) gent (Scotland) ghent, gont (dialectal) ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === References === === Further reading === emaciation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia gaunt (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “gaunt”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. === Anagrams === Tunga, untag == Scots == === Verb === gaunt (third-person singular simple present gaunts, present participle gauntin, simple past and past participle gauntt) alternative spelling of gant === Noun === gaunt (plural gaunts) alternative spelling of gant