gait

Etymology

It is a special use and spelling of gate², way, road, going,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Middle English gate, also gait,^[6][7][8] borrowed from Old Norse gata (“way, road, path”).^[2][7][6][9] The Old Norse word goes back to Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ,^[10][11][9] also the source of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐍅𐍉 (gatwō, “street”), Old High German gazza (“street”) and German Gasse (“lane”).^[2][10][11] Its further origin is unknown;^[2] Kroonen relates it to *getaną (“to find (a way)”),^[11] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary perhaps to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghē-.^[10][7] The spelling gait first appears in the 15th century, almost only in Scots and northern texts;^[2][4] it was established for this sense by the middle of the 18th century.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Manner of walking or stepping, carriage while moving: 1509, in Barclay's Shyp of Folys.^[2][8] Barnhart dates the spelling gait to about 1450,^[12] and the parent word gate is recorded as "way, road, path" from about 1200 and as "a going, a journey" from about 1300.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

The sense "manner of going" grew out of the Middle English senses "way, road" and "going, journey".^[10][12][2] Johnson (1755) still gave "a way" before "march; walk", with the phrase gang your gait;^[13] once the spelling gait became general, it was kept for the manner of walking, while the older senses lived on as gate in Scots and northern dialect.^[2][5] From 1684 the plural gaits was used of the paces of a horse.^[2] In American slang of the 19th century a person's gait was their trade or occupation.^[14] In Scotland and the north of England the word also meant pace or rate of walking.^[15] The verb, to train a horse in a gait or to lead a show dog before a judge, is recorded from about 1900.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – gate, a way, road or path.^[10][12]
• c. 1300 – gate, a going, departure or journey.^[10][12]
• c. 1450 – the spelling gait.^[12]
• 1509 – manner of walking or stepping.^[2][8]
• 1684 – plural, the paces of a horse.^[2]
• 1859 – in American slang, one's trade or occupation.^[14]
• c. 1900 – verb, to train a horse in a particular gait.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A manner of walking or running; bearing or carriage while moving: Her limping gait gave away the injury.^[16][8][2]
2. Any of the patterns of footfall by which a horse or dog moves, such as the walk, trot, pace or canter.^[16][8][2]
3. The manner or speed of moving forward, as of a vehicle.^[8][4]
4. go one's own gait: to go one's own way.^[2][4]

Verb

1. To train a horse to move in a particular gait.^[16][8]
2. To lead a show dog before a judge to show how it moves.^[8]

Related words

• gate

Usage notes

Several dialect words of the same spelling have other sources.^[2] In northern England and Scotland a gait is a sheaf of corn set up singly to dry, recorded from 1788 and probably the regional form of goat, from the sheaf's shape;^[2][15] the verb gait, to set up sheaves in this way, is recorded from 1797.^[2] In some Midland and eastern counties a gait of water was the two buckets carried with a yoke, recorded from 1827, in Clare's Shepherd's Calendar.^[2][15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins