gelt

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Geld (“money”) and also borrowed from Dutch geld,^[2][3][4][5] the Dutch word from Middle Dutch ghelt (“payment, money”).^[6] In later and Jewish use it is from Yiddish געלט (gelt),^[3][6] from Middle High German geld, from Old High German gelt (“payment, recompense, reward”).^[7][8][3] All of these go back to Proto-Germanic *geldą (“payment”),^[3] the source of geld and yield.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Money, in early use often the pay of a German army: before 1529, in John Skelton's Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng ("Neyther gelt nor pawne").^[2][5] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1529,^[6] and Etymonline to the 1520s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Sixteenth-century writers used the phrase bare gelt, from German or Dutch, for ready money.^[2] By the end of the 17th century the word was thieves' cant: the New Dictionary of the Canting Crew (about 1698) glosses it as money,^[9] and the OED now calls it slang.^[2][4] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect gelt meant money, or gain and profit.^[10] Its later and especially American use comes from Yiddish.^[3][8] From 1952 it is recorded for money, and now chiefly chocolate coins, given to children at Hanukkah and used as stakes in games of dreidel.^[2] In the 16th century gelt was also used, perhaps as a mock archaism, for gold.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1529 – money, often an army's pay.^[2]
• c. 1548 – perhaps, gold.^[2]
• c. 1698 – money, in thieves' cant.^[9]
• 1952 – money or chocolate coins given at Hanukkah.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang, chiefly US) Money or cash: He was always short of gelt by Thursday.^[8][6][4]
2. Money, or now usually chocolate coins, given to children at Hanukkah.^[2]

Related words

• geld
• yield

Usage notes

Three other words are spelled gelt: a past tense and past participle of geld, to castrate (from about 1440),^[2][8] a rare word for a madman, from Irish geilt (“a frenzied person”), used by Spenser,^[2][4] and an obsolete form of gilt.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.