Etymologically
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gate

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡeɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gate, yate, inherited from Old English geat, gæt (“gate, door, opening, passage”),[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *gatan,[2][3] the source also of Old Norse gat “opening, passage”, Old Saxon gat “eye of a needle” and Dutch gat “hole, breach”.[2][3][4] Etymonline calls its origin unknown,[2] while Barnhart and MWU relate it to Greek chézein and Sanskrit hadati “to defecate”.[3][5] The modern form with g comes from the Old English plural gatu; the singular would have given yate, which survives in northern dialects.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An opening in a wall made for entrance and exit, or the barrier closing it: about 700 in Barnhart, 778 in the OED.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In biblical language the gate stood for the city itself (about 825), and the gates of heaven and hell are from about 1000.[6] A mountain pass is from 1601.[6] Money taken from people paying to watch a sports event, short for gate money (1820), is from 1896.[2] Get the gate, to be dismissed, is from 1918.[6] A gate-crasher was an uninvited party guest from 1926.[2] A gated community is recorded by 1989.[2] After the Watergate scandal, -gate became a suffix for scandals from 1973.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – a gate, an opening.[3]
  • 1601 – a mountain pass.[6]
  • 1896 – money from spectators.[2]
  • 1926 – gate-crasher.[2]
  • 1973 – -gate, a scandal.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A barrier like a door that closes an opening in a wall or fence.
  2. An opening or entrance, especially a large one into a town or building.
  3. The place at an airport where passengers get on a plane.
  4. The number of people who pay to watch a sports event, or the money they pay.

Verb

  1. (British) To keep a student in college as a punishment.

Word family

  • gater
  • gateway
  • gait
  • yate

Usage notes

A different gate, “way, road, street”, from Old Norse gata, survives in northern street-names such as those of York and in dialect, as in gang one's gate, go one's way.[5][4][6]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press