garner

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English gerner, also garner,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman gerner, beside Old French gernier,^[5][6][7] a variant with the r moved of grenier (“storehouse, loft for grain”),^[4][8] now grenier.^[6][5] The French word is from Latin grānārium (“storehouse for grain”), usually in the plural grānāria,^[7][4] from grānum (“grain”),^[4][9][10] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *gre-no- (“grain”).^[4] The same Latin noun gave Italian granaio, Catalan graner, Spanish granero and Old Occitan granier,^[8] and was borrowed directly as granary, a doublet of garner.^[8][11] In Anglo-Norman gerner is recorded from the mid-12th century for a granary or storehouse, and also for a compartment in a ship's hold.^[12] The verb was formed from the noun:^[7][2][3] garneren.^[2][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A storehouse for grain: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies,^[7][2] which speak of the corn that is put into the gernere, that is, into heaven.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 12th century,^[4] and Barnhart to probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a gerner could also be a storehouse of any kind, or a store or supply;^[2] from 1494 to 1611 it was also a storehouse for salt, like French grenier à sel.^[7] Chaucer used the word four times.^[14] The verb, to store grain in a garner, is dated to 1474 by the OED,^[7] to before 1400 in Scottish by Barnhart,^[3] and to the late 15th century by Etymonline.^[4] From Shakespeare's Othello (before 1616) it was used figuratively, to collect or lay up as in a granary.^[7] Johnson (1755) knew the noun as a place for storing threshed grain, with a quotation from The Tempest.^[15] The noun has since given way to granary except in rhetorical or poetic language,^[7][16] and the verb survives mainly in its figurative sense, to gather or earn something such as support, praise or evidence.^[13][10][11] In Cheshire and the Midlands dialect a garner was a bin or partition in a mill or granary.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – a storehouse for grain.^[7][2]
• 1474 – verb, to store grain in a garner.^[7][2]
• 1494 – a storehouse for salt (obsolete after 1611).^[7]
• before 1616 – figurative, to collect or lay up as in a garner, in Shakespeare's Othello.^[7]
• 1850 – intransitive, to accumulate (rare), in Tennyson's In Memoriam.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gather or acquire something, especially by effort: The film garnered three awards and wide praise.^[13][11][10]
2. To gather and store something, as grain in a granary; to amass: Over the years she garnered a large collection of letters.^[9][13][7]

Noun

1. (archaic) A granary.^[9][10][5]
2. (archaic) A place where something is stored or kept safe.^[9][13]

Word family

• ungarnered

Related words

• granary
• grain
• garnel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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)
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ 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)