gelt

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ɡɛlt/ Rhymes: -ɛlt === Etymology 1 === From Irish geilt. ==== Noun ==== gelt (plural gelts) (rare) A lunatic. === Etymology 2 === Variation of gilt. ==== Noun ==== gelt (plural gelts) (obsolete) Gilding; gilt. === Etymology 3 === See geld. ==== Verb ==== gelt simple past and past participle of geld ==== Noun ==== gelt (plural gelts) A gelding. === Etymology 4 === In the basic sense of "money", attested since the early 16th century, initially from (an Early New High German continuation of) Middle High German gelt (modern German Geld), from Old High German gelt (“payment, money”), or in some cases from (an Early Modern Dutch continuation of) Middle Dutch gelt. Later, and in the Jewish-related senses, from Yiddish געלט (gelt). The German, Dutch and Yiddish words are all from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”). Doublet of native words geld and yield. ==== Noun ==== gelt (usually uncountable, plural gelts) (originally UK, especially thieves' cant and Polari, later Judaism and general slang) Money. 1591 (1685), Henry Wotton, in Reliquiae Wottonianae, 616: It amounts to not above 12000 Fr. Rhenish, yearly, in bare gelt. 1816, Egbert Benson, in a memoir read before the New York Historical Society [in 1816], quoted in History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church (1883), page 22: I saw him at the house of my parents; I in my earliest youth, he approaching to fourscore. He was on his way to collect the Dominie's gelt; for the Dutch always took care the stipend to the minister should be competent, that so he never might be straitened 'to desire a gift.' 1948, William Burroughs, letter, 5 Jun 1948: Have bought some farm land in Rio Grande Valley which should bring in a sizeable bundle of gelts come cotton picking time. Tribute; tax. (Judaism) Money, especially that given as a gift on Hanukkah or used in games of dreidel. (Judaism) Chocolate candy in the shape of coins, usually wrapped in metallic foil, usually eaten on Hanukkah and often used for games of dreidel. ===== Derived terms ===== (thieves' cant): rum-gelt (“new money”), smear-gelt (“bribe”) === References === == Icelandic == === Etymology === Deverbal from gelta (“to bark”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /cɛl̥t/ Rhymes: -ɛl̥t === Noun === gelt n (genitive singular gelts, no plural) barking Synonyms: gjamm, gá ==== Declension ==== == Old English == === Noun === gelt m alternative form of gylt