gaunt

See also: Gaunt

English

WOTD – 16 September 2024

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 patalization 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/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (cot–caught merger) enPR: gänt, IPA^(key): /ɡɑnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

Adjective

gaunt (comparative gaunter, superlative gauntest)

1. Angular, bony, and lean.
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 31:

     [H]e presented for the first time to Mannering his tall, gaunt, awkward, boney figure, attired in a threadbare suit of black, […]

   • 1859 (date written), Herman Melville, “The Portent”, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1866, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 11:

     Hanging from the beam, / Slowly swaying (such the law), / Gaunt the shadow on your green, / Shenandoah!

   • 1882, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter VIII, in In Maremma […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 211:

     He rose with difficulty; a tall, gaunt, terrible form, black and weird against the shining sea and the starry skies.

   • 1887, Hall Caine, chapter XI, in A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our Time […], volume II, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, 3rd book (The Declivity of Crime), page 238:

     The leafless trees were surging in the night-wind; their gaunt branches were waving grimly over her head.

   • 1915 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Boy Grows Up”, in The Research Magnificent, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, § 12, page 113:

     It will be the rawest, gauntest, ungainliest brute that ever scared the motor-bicycles on the Northampton Road.

2. Unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard.

   Synonyms: scraggy, scrawny, skinny

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature [C4], recto:

     Old Gaunt indeede, and gaunt in being olde: / VVithin me Griefe hath kept a tedious faſt. / And vvho abſtaines from meate that is not gaunt? / For ſleeping England long time haue I vvatcht, / VVatching breedes leaneneſſe, leaneneſſe is all gaunt: / The pleaſure that ſome fathers feede vpon / Is my ſtrict faſt; I meane my childrens lookes, / And therein faſting haſt thou made me gaunt: / Gaunt am I for the graue, gaunt as a graue, / VVhoſe hollovv vvombe inherites naught but bones.

   • 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 105, lines 319–320:

     VVhen once he [a horse]'s broken, feed him full and high: / Indulge his Grovvth, and his gaunt ſides ſupply.

   • 1846, Charles Dickens, “To Parma, Modena, and Bologna”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 89:

     [T]he gauntest of dogs trot in and out of the dullest of archways, in perpetual search of something to eat, which they never seem to find.

   • 1894, Aesop, Joseph Jacobs, “The Dog and the Wolf”, in The Fables of Æsop […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 70:

     A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.

   • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Stillness”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), page 239:

     Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces of men there were none.

   • 1913 November 22, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Dying Detective”, in His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published October 1917, →OCLC, page 181:

     In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick-room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.

   • 1985 August, Norman Spinrad, chapter 30, in Child of Fortune, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 472:

     For even as the flesh melted away from Pater Pan's gaunter and gaunter figure to the point where I marveled that he could yet sit upright, […] his eyes seemed to grow larger and more brilliant in their deepening sockets, one could almost perceive them glowing from within with the blue light of a brain that would now seem to be burning itself out in ecstasy.

   • 2024 February 17, “The FT View: The extraordinary courage of Alexei Navalny”, in Financial Times‎^[1], London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-27, page 8:

     Whatever the official cause of his is death is said to be—and [Alexei] Navalny, though gaunt, seemed in good spirits in a court hearing a day earlier—foreign leaders are rightly holding the Kremlin responsible.

3. (figurative)
   1. Of a place or thing: bleak, desolate.
      • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the First”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 47–79:

        But all that night, waking or in my sleep, the same thoughts recurred and the same images retained possession of my brain. I had ever before me the old dark murky rooms—the gaunt suits of mail with their ghostly silent air—the faces all awry, grinning from wood and stone— […]

      • 1872, [Walter Besant, James Rice], chapter 1, in Ready-money Mortiboy. A Matter-of-fact Story. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 3:

        Ready-money Mortiboy's parlour is a gaunt, cold room, with long, narrow windows, wire blinds, horsehair chairs, a horsehair sofa, red moreen curtains, and a round table with a red cover reaching to the floor.

      • 1876, Thomas Hardy, “The Lodge, continued—The Copse behind”, in The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 156:

        To blossom into rhyme on the sparkling pleasures of life, you must be under the influence of those pleasures, and I am at present quite removed from them—surrounded by gaunt realities of a very different description.

      • 1889 December, Mary B[aker] G[lover] Eddy, “The Way”, in Septimus J[ames] Hanna, editor, The Christian Science Journal, volume VII, number 9, Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, Joseph Armstrong, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 431:

        The present stage of progress in Christian Science presents two opposite aspects, a full-orbed promise, and a gaunt want; the need however is not of the letter, but the spirit.

      • 1908, William Hope Hodgson, “The Sea of Sleep”, in The House on the Borderland […], London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC; republished Adelaide, S.A.: eBooks@Adelaide, University of Adelaide Library, 28 August 2010:

        Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt, black cliffs.

   2. (rare) Greedy; also, hungry, ravenous.
      • 1747, [Tobias Smollett], Reproof: A Satire. […], London: […] W. Owen, […]; and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 7, lines 123–124:

        Gorg'd vvith our plunder, yet ſtill gaunt for ſpoil, / Rapacious G—d—n faſtens on our iſle; […]

4. (obsolete)
   2. With a positive or neutral connotation: not overweight; lean, slender, slim.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:slender

      Antonyms: see Thesaurus:obese, Thesaurus:overweight

      • 1549 April 15 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “The Fifth Sermon Preached before King Edward [VI], April 5th, 1549.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, and Constant Martyr of Jesus Christ, Hugh Latimer, Some Time Bishop of Worcester, […], volume I, London: […] James Duncan, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 170:

        I know where a woman was got with child, and was ashamed at the matter, and went into a secret place, where she had no woman at her travail, and was delivered of three children at a birth. She wrung their necks, and cast them into a water, and so killed her children: suddenly she was gaunt again, and her neighbours suspecting the matter, caused her to be examined, and she granted all: […]

        The spelling has been modernized.

      • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXIII.] The Medecines which Grapes Fresh and New Gathered doe Yeeld. […].”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, pages 152–153:

        [T]hey vvho feed overmuch, and deſire to be gant and ſlender, and vvithall, to be coſtive, ought to forbear drinking at meales, ſo long as they eat, but after meat they may drink moderatly. To drinke vvine upon an emptie ſtomacke faſting, is a nevv found deviſe lately come up, and it is moſt unholeſome for the bodie, […]

      • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Eothen”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 516:

        [O]ur friend began to amend, and he was quite well (though gaunt as a greyhound) before they reached the Cape.

   3. (figurative) Of a sound: suggesting bleakness and desolation.
      • 1814, [John Galt], “The Prophetess; a Tragedy. […]”, in The New British Theatre; a Selection of Original Dramas, Not Yet Acted, […], volume I, London: […] A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy [for] Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 187:

        To the shouting throng / My fancy hears a dismal voice reply, / Like the gaunt echo of a hollow tomb.— […]

Alternative forms

• gant (dialectal, Scotland)
• gent (Scotland)
• ghent, gont (dialectal)

Derived terms

• gaunted
• gauntly
• gauntness

Translations

angular, bony, and lean

• Bulgarian: костелив (bg) (kosteliv), мършав (bg) (mǎršav)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 瘦削 (zh) (shòuxuē)

• Czech: hubený (cs)
• Dutch: mager (nl)
• Finnish: luiseva (fi)
• French: anguleux (fr) m, maigre (fr), osseux (fr) m
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: გამხდარი (gamxdari), მჭლე (mč̣le)
• German: dünn (de), hager (de), knochig, mager (de)
• Italian: allampanato (it), emaciato (it), macilento (it), ossuto (it), scheletrico (it), smagrito (it)
• Japanese: げっそりやせた (gessoriyaseta)
• Latin: macer
• Macedonian: ковчест m (kovčest)
• Ottoman Turkish: ضعیف (zaʼif)
• Plautdietsch: denn
• Polish: szczupły (pl) m
• Romanian: ciolănos (ro) m, jigărit (ro) m, sfrijit (ro) m
• Russian: костля́вый (ru) (kostljávyj), сухопа́рый (ru) (suxopáryj), то́щий (ru) (tóščij), худо́й (ru) (xudój)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: испѝјен, ко̀шчат, сухо̀њав

  Roman: ispìjen (sh), koščat (sh), suhònjav (sh)

• Welsh: achul

unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness — see also drawn,‎ emaciated,‎ haggard

• Bulgarian: измъчен (bg) (izmǎčen), изтощен (bg) (iztošten)
• Czech: kost a kůže, vyzáblý, vychrtlý (cs)
• Finnish: luiseva (fi)
• French: émacié (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: გასავათებული (gasavatebuli), ღონემიხდილი (ɣonemixdili), ძალღონე გამოლეული (ʒalɣone gamoleuli)
• German: abgemagert (de), ausgemergelt (de)
• Maori: pāhehaheha, pakoko, pāohe
• Ottoman Turkish: ضعیف (zaʼif)
• Polish: wymizerowany (pl) m
• Russian: исхуда́лый (ru) (isxudályj), исхуда́вший (ru) (isxudávšij)
• Spanish: chupado (es), demacrado (es), macilento (es), enjuto (es), raquítico (es), flaquítico (Dominican Republic)

of a place or thing: bleak, desolate — see also bleak,‎ desolate

• Bulgarian: мрачен (bg) (mračen), запуснат (bg) (zapusnat)
• Czech: bezútěšný, nehostinný, neutěšený (cs), pochmurný (cs), pustý (cs)
• Finnish: jylhä, karu (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: ბნელი (bneli), უდაბური (udaburi), უკაცრიელი (ka) (uḳacrieli)
• German: kahl (de), karg (de), nackt (de), öde (de), trostlos (de), verlassen (de)
• Japanese: 荒涼とした (kōryōtoshita)
• Korean: 황량한 (hwangnyanghan), 황폐 한 (hwangpye han)
• Spanish: demacrado (es)

greedy; hungry, ravenous — see greedy,‎ hungry,‎ ravenous

Further reading

• emaciation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gaunt (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “gaunt”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Tunga, untag

Scots

Verb

gaunt (third-person singular simple present gaunts, present participle gauntin, simple past gauntt, past participle gauntt)

1. Alternative spelling of gant

Noun

gaunt (plural gaunts)

1. Alternative spelling of gant