gild

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gilden,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English gyldan (“to gild”),^{[5][6][3][7][8]} recorded especially in compounds such as ofergyldan (“to cover with gold”) and in the past participle gegyld.^[9][10][7] It is from Proto-Germanic *gulþijaną,^[1] a verb formed from *gulþą (“gold”), the source of gold.^[6][9][11] In Old English it was a weak verb whose y shows the i-mutation of the u of gold, caused by the verb suffix.^[5][4] It is related to Old Norse gylla (“to gild”),^{[6][9][5][11]} Swedish gylla, Danish gylde,^[5] Old High German ubargulden (“to cover with gold”)^[6][9][3] and Middle High German vergülden.^[12][8] Etymonline takes the base back with Watkins to Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”),^[6][13] the root of the general Indo-European word for gold.^[6] The OED notes that the earliest Old and Middle English records are of the prefixed past participle, that the plain verb is rare in Middle English before the end of the 14th century, and that some later uses may be shortenings of overgild.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cover with gold, especially with gold leaf: Old English, in the translation of Felix's Life of St Guthlac;^[5] Bosworth–Toller cites it from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1052.^[7] Barnhart's first Middle English record is probably from before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, to adorn something or give it a false lustre, is recorded from 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwit;^[5] Etymonline dates figurative use only from the 1590s.^[6] From about 1425, in Lydgate, sunlight could gild what it fell on,^[5] and alchemists of the late 15th to 17th centuries spoke of gilding a liquid, filling it with the virtue of gold.^[5] In the 16th century to gild over meant to hide defects under a fine surface (1574), and gild also came to mean to supply a person with money, or to make someone seem respectable through wealth (1584).^[5] Shakespeare's King John has "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily" for needless ornament (1595); the popular phrase gild the lily is a misquotation of it.^[14][15] To gild the pill, to make something unpleasant easier to accept, is recorded from 1625 and alludes to gilding a bitter pill to hide its taste.^[16][15] From 1614 the verb could also mean to smear with blood,^[5] a use the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins now label archaic.^[13][12] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to wash over with gold; to cover with foliated gold".^[17]

Timeline

• Old English – to cover with gold, especially with gold leaf.^[5]
• before 1300 – Middle English gilden, probably in Kyng Alisaunder.^[9]
• 1340 – figurative, to adorn, to give a false lustre to.^[5]
• c. 1425 – to tinge with golden light, especially sunlight.^[5]
• before 1475 – in alchemy, to fill a liquid with the properties of gold (obsolete by 1685).^[5]
• 1574 – gild over, to cover up defects.^[5]
• 1584 – to supply with money; to make attractive by wealth.^[5]
• 1595 – "to gild refined gold", in Shakespeare's King John.^[14][15]
• 1611 – to coat with a metal other than gold.^[5]
• 1614 – to smear with blood.^[5]
• 1625 – gild the pill, to make something unpleasant acceptable.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover with a thin layer of gold, or of something that looks like gold: The restorers gilded the picture frames.^{[3][13][12][5]}
2. To give a golden colour or light to: The low sun gilded the wheat fields.^[3][5]
3. To give a deceptively attractive appearance to; to embellish.^{[3][13][12][5]}
4. To supply with money, or to make something attractive through wealth.^[3][5]
5. gild the lily: to decorate something already beautiful, needlessly; also, to praise someone too much.^[12][14][13]
6. gild the pill: to make something unpleasant easier to accept.^[16][15]
7. (archaic) To smear with blood.^[13][12][5]

Word family

• gilder
• gildable
• engild
• overgild
• regild
• Gilded Age

Related words

• gold
• gilt
• golden
• guild

Usage notes

The past tense and past participle are gilded or gilt;^[3][13][12] the Shorter Oxford says that gilt is now used chiefly in the literal sense.^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary also enters gild as a variant spelling of guild, the association,^[13] and Hoad, Weekley and Klein refer that spelling to guild.^[11][15][18] Scots and the dialects of Orkney and Shetland had an adjective gild, full-grown or of full value, then great or utter, which the OED takes from Norn;^[5][19] the OED also records an obsolete noun gild, a tax, from Medieval Latin.^[5][10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b c Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
15. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
19. ^ 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)