gaunt

Etymology

It is of unknown origin.^[2][3][4][5] Skeat compared Norwegian gand (“a thin pointed stick; a tall thin man”) and a Swedish dialect word for a lean, half-starved horse, but called the link doubtful;^[6][2] Klein, Partridge, Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still think a Scandinavian source likely or possible, and Merriam-Webster also compares Icelandic gandur (“stick”).^{[7][8][9][10]} Etymonline compares Old Norse gandr (“a thin stick; a tall thin man”) and suggests some connection with the root of gander.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary compares Old French jaunet (“yellowish”), also gaunet,^[12][11] and Dictionary.com takes this as the probable source, a derivative of jaune (“yellow”), from Latin galbinus (“greenish yellow”).^[13] Barnhart instead derives it from Middle French gant, of uncertain origin, because the early surnames and the spelling do not fit a Scandinavian word.^[14] The OED notes that all other English words ending in “-aunt” except flaunt are French, and that the early use might point to a written adoption of gant, a form of gent (“elegant”).^[2] Weekley, who also saw it as an East Anglian word, suggested the dialect name gant for various water birds, related to goose.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lean, thin, slender: about 1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses gawnt, or lene with Latin maciolentus and gawnte, or swonge with gracilis.^[12][2][14] It is found earlier as a surname: Henry le Gant in 1247.^[12][14][11]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word could be neutral or even favourable, "slim, slender, not fat", a sense that lasted until the 18th century;^[2][3][10] Hoad also gives it as "slim" for the 15th century.^[5] The sense "abnormally lean, as from hunger or suffering", recorded from the same time, became the main one.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "thin; slender; lean; meagre", quoting the lines on "Old Gaunt" in Shakespeare's Richard II.^[16] Smollett used it in 1746 for "hungry, ravenous", a rare sense.^[2] From 1814 it was transferred to things and places that look grim or desolate.^[2][9][10] The spelling gant was used in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[8][6]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – gawnt, slim, slender, not fat (obsolete by 1736).^[2][12]
• c. 1440 – abnormally lean, haggard-looking.^[2]
• 1746 – hungry, ravenous (rare).^[2]
• 1814 – of things, grim or desolate in appearance.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very thin and bony, especially from hunger, illness or suffering; haggard: a gaunt old man in a shabby coat.^[9][10][2]
2. Of a place or thing, bleak, desolate or grim-looking: gaunt winter hills.^[9][10][2]
3. (obsolete) Slim, slender, not fat.^[2][3][10]

Verb

1. To make thin or gaunt; especially, to train an animal down to racing fitness.^[10]

Word family

• gauntly
• gauntness

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has a separate noun gaunt, the great crested grebe, probably an altered form of gant, an obsolete variant of gannet;^[10] Wright records it in Lincolnshire.^[17]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d 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)
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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)