Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗Angular, bony, and lean. · Unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard. · Of a place or thing: bleak, desolate. · Greedy; also, hungry, ravenous.
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).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Root classification mention*ǵenh₁-ine-pro
- Root classification mention*gʷʰen-ine-pro
- Inherited-form mentiongauntenm
- Derivation mentiongandrnon · magic staff; stick
- Cognate mentionganduris · magic staff
- Cognate mentiongandno · thin, pointed stick; tall, thin man
- Derivation mention*gandazgem-pro · stick; staff
- Cognate mentionganksv · (dialectal) lean, emaciated horse
- Cognate mentiongandda
- Cognate mentionganano · cut-off tree limbs
- Cognate mentionGuntenbar · kind of peg or wedge
- Derivation mentiongantfro
- Cognate mentiongentfr
- Derivation mentiongēnsla · clan, tribe; country, nation; family; people
- Derivation mention*gentisitc-pro
- Derivation mention*ǵénh₁tisine-pro
- Derivation mentionjaunetfro · yellowish
- Derivation mentiongalbinusla
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "root",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*ǵenh₁-",
"4": "*gʷʰen-"
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{
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{
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"t": "(dialectal) lean, emaciated horse"
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"expansion": "Swedish gank (“(dialectal) lean, emaciated horse”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
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"expansion": "Danish gand"
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{
"name": "cog",
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"t": "cut-off tree limbs"
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"expansion": "Norwegian gana (“cut-off tree limbs”)"
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"expansion": "French gent"
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"3": "gēns",
"t": "clan, tribe; country, nation; family; people"
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"expansion": "Latin gēns (“clan, tribe; country, nation; family; people”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
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"2": "itc-pro",
"3": "*gentis"
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"expansion": "Proto-Italic *gentis"
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{
"name": "der",
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"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*ǵénh₁tis"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis"
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{
"name": "senseno",
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"3": "jaunet",
"t": "yellowish",
"alt": "jau(l)net"
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"expansion": "Old French jau(l)net (“yellowish”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
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"3": "galbinus"
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"expansion": "Latin galbinus"
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"gant#Middle_English"
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[
"gandur",
"gandur#Icelandic"
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[
"gand",
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[
"*gandaz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/gandaz"
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[
"gank",
"gank#Swedish"
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[
"gand",
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[
"gan",
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[
"gana",
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[
"Gunten",
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[
"*gunþiz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/gunþiz"
],
[
"gant",
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[
"gent",
"gent#Old_French"
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[
"gent",
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[
"gēns",
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[
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"Reconstruction:Proto-Italic/gentis"
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[
"*ǵénh₁tis",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ǵénh₁tis"
],
[
"*ǵenh₁-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ǵenh₁-"
],
[
"jaunty",
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[
"gentil",
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[
"jau(l)net",
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[
"jaune",
"jaune#Old_French"
],
[
"galbinus",
"galbinus#Latin"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Angular, bony, and lean.",
"Unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard.",
"Of a place or thing: bleak, desolate.",
"Greedy; also, hungry, ravenous."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively",
"rare"
],
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