gazelle

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gazelle,^[2][3][4][5] earlier gazel, recorded in the 14th century,^[2][3][4] probably through Spanish gacel or gacela,^[6][7][3][8] from Arabic غَزَال (ġazāl, “gazelle”).^{[2][9][4][10][1]} The OED notes that the Arabic word probably passed first into Spanish and thence into the other Romance languages,^[2] among them Portuguese gazella and Italian gazzella.^[2][11] Klein and Etymonline trace the French form to a North African pronunciation of the Arabic word,^[12][3] and Skeat glosses the Arabic "a wild goat, gazelle".^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small, delicately built antelope, the typical species being the dorcas gazelle of North Africa: 1600, in Pory's translation of Leo Africanus.^[2][4][5] Dictionary.com dates the word a little earlier, to 1575–85.^[13] An obsolete spelling was gazel.^[6][1]

Semantic evolution

The name was soon extended to related antelopes of Africa and Asia, now classed in the genus Gazella and allied genera such as Procapra.^[2][14][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that gazelles are known for the lustre and soft look of their eyes.^[5] From 1774 the word was used attributively, as in Goldsmith's gazelle-eyed.^[2] It also names a greyish to yellowish brown colour, gazelle brown.^[5] In slang, recorded from 1885 in the Sydney Bulletin, a gazelle was a young woman.^[15] The verb, to move in light leaps like a gazelle, is found in 20th-century writing.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 1600 – a small graceful antelope.^[2][4][5]
• 1774 – attributive, in gazelle-eyed.^[2]
• 1885 – in slang, a young woman.^[15]
• 1917 – verb, to leap like a gazelle.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various small, graceful, swift antelopes of Africa and Asia, of the genus Gazella and related genera, with large soft eyes: A herd of gazelles bounded across the plain.^[14][5][6]
2. A greyish-brown to yellowish-brown colour; also gazelle brown.^[5]
3. (slang) A young woman.^[15]

Verb

1. To move with light, easy leaps, like a gazelle: The winger gazelled past two defenders.^[5][1]

Word family

• gazellelike

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com