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gill

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English has three main words spelled gill: the breathing organ of a fish, a measure for liquids, and a ravine;[1][2] dictionaries also list a fourth, a girl, from the name Gill.[2][3][4]

Pronunciation

gill1 breathing organ of a fish

Etymology

The breathing organ is inherited from Middle English gille, also gile,[3][6][7] probably borrowed from Old Norse *gil, a form not recorded but deduced from the modern Scandinavian words.[1][2] The OED takes it from early Scandinavian, comparing Old Swedish gel (“gill”) and Old Danish gel (“gill”),[8] and Barnhart, Klein and Collins compare Swedish gäl, Danish gælle and Norwegian gjelle.[6][7][9] These go back to the same base as Old Norse gjǫlnar, a rare word for whiskers, gills or lips, and Old Danish fiskegæln (“fish gill”).[8][4][10] Orel puts the Old Norse word under Proto-Germanic *gelunō and compares Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”);[11] Hoad, Klein and the OED also compare χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”), perhaps from the same Indo-European base.[2][7][8] Etymonline calls the word of unknown origin.[10] Johnson derived it from Spanish agalla or Latin gula,[12] and Weekley also compared the Spanish word.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the paired breathing organs of a fish: before 1325, in Walter de Bibbesworth's French glossary.[8][6] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century,[10] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.[14]

Semantic evolution

From 1573 gills were used of people, for the flesh under the jaws and ears, or the cheeks;[8][4] red about the gills (1573) describes someone flushed with drink or anger, and blue about the gills (1665) someone looking ill or low.[8][4] The word was applied by likeness to the wattles of a turkey or other bird (1596), to the fur from the throat of a mink or marten (1612), to the thin plates under the cap of a mushroom (1672) and to the breathing organs of aquatic invertebrates (1681).[8][4] In slang the gills were the corners of a high, stiff shirt collar (1826–84),[8][4] and in aeronautics the hinged flaps behind an air-cooled aircraft engine (1937).[8] The verb, to gut a fish, is recorded from 1440, and in the United States from 1868 also to catch fish by the gills in a gill net.[8][4] In Scots and English dialect the gills were the lower jaw, the flesh under the chin, or the mouth.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – the breathing organ of a fish.[8][6]
  • 1440 – verb, to gut a fish.[8]
  • 1573 – of people, the flesh under the jaws and ears.[8]
  • 1596 – the wattles of a bird.[8]
  • 1665 – blue about the gills.[8]
  • 1672 – the plates under the cap of a mushroom.[8]
  • 1681 – the breathing organ of aquatic invertebrates.[8]
  • 1868 – verb, to catch fish by the gills.[8]
  • 1937 – the cooling flaps of an aircraft engine.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The breathing organ of a fish or other water animal, a series of thin, blood-rich plates or filaments that take oxygen from the water.[9][3][8]
  2. (usually plural) One of the thin radiating plates under the cap of a mushroom.[9][8][4]
  3. (usually plural) The wattles of a bird.[8][4]
  4. (usually plural, informal) The flesh under a person's jaws and ears: He looked a little green about the gills after the ferry crossing.[8][4]

Verb

  1. To gut or clean a fish.[9][3][8]
  2. To catch fish in a gill net, or of fish, to be caught in one.[9][3][8]

Word family

  • gilled
  • giller
  • gill-less
  • gill-like
  • gill arch
  • book gill
  • gill net

gill2 liquid measure

Etymology

The measure is inherited from Middle English gille,[16][2] borrowed from Old French gille, also gelle, a measure or vessel for wine,[2][4][17][10] from Late Latin gillō (“water pot”), also gellō, with Medieval Latin forms gillus and gellus.[4][2][6] Collins describes the Late Latin vessel as one for cooling liquids, of obscure origin.[9] The OED and Merriam-Webster instead derive it from Middle French gille or gelle, a vat or tub, probably a variant of jarle, from Latin gerulus (“carrying”),[8][3] from gerō (“to bear, carry”).[3] Klein thought the Latin word probably of Semitic origin,[7] and Weekley suggested a pet name such as Giles or Gill, as with jack and jug.[13] Etymonline compares gallon.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A measure for liquids: about 1390, in Langland's Piers Plowman, where Glutton gulps "a galoun and a gille".[8][16] A London document of 1310 names measures called schopinas et gilles, but it is unclear whether this is English or Anglo-Norman.[8][16] Barnhart dates the word to 1310,[6] Etymonline to the late 13th century,[10] and Dictionary.com to 1225–75.[14]

Semantic evolution

The size of the measure varied with place and time; it settled at a quarter of a pint, though in many dialects a gill was half a pint.[8][4][3] Weekley notes that in dialect the gill was half a pint and the jack a quarter.[13] From about 1425 to 1925 gill also meant a vessel holding that amount.[8][16] In dialect the word formed compounds such as gill-stoup, a drinking vessel, and gill-wife, an ale-wife,[15] and in the West Indies it was a name for a small coin, at first a penny (1873).[18]

Timeline

  • 1310 – gilles in a London document, perhaps Anglo-Norman.[8][6]
  • c. 1390 – a measure for liquids.[8][16]
  • c. 1425 – a vessel holding a gill (obsolete by 1925).[8]
  • 1873 – West Indian slang, a small coin.[18]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A unit of liquid capacity equal to a quarter of a pint: in Britain a quarter of an imperial pint, in the United States a quarter of a U.S. liquid pint.[3][4][8]
  2. (dialect, England) Half a pint.[3][4]

gill3 ravine, stream

Etymology

The ravine is inherited from Middle English gil, also gille,[16][3] borrowed from Old Norse gil (“ravine, deep glen”).[8][2][4][1][17] The OED compares Faroese gil and Norwegian Nynorsk gil, both meaning ravine, and the cognate Middle High German gil (“hernia”), from a suffixed form of the Germanic base of Old English ginian (“to yawn”).[8] Merriam-Webster also compares Middle Low German gīl (“throat”) and Old High German gil (“hernia”).[3] Ayto calls the Norse word of unknown ancestry.[1] The Middle English word is chiefly northern and north Midland.[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A deep rocky cleft or ravine, usually wooded and carrying a stream: about 1440, in The Awntyrs off Arthure.[8][16] The word appears much earlier in place names, such as Seachregil in Durham (1086, now Scargill),[8] which Ayto and Hoad date to the 11th century,[1][2] and in surnames such as Thomas del Gile (1246).[8] Dictionary.com dates it to 1350–1400.[14]

Semantic evolution

From 1635 the word was also used of the stream itself, a narrow brook or rivulet.[8][4][2] It stayed a regional word, used in Scotland and the northern counties of England down to Lancashire.[15] The spelling ghyll was introduced by Wordsworth in the late 18th century,[2][4][13] and became common in the Lake District and Northumberland.[15]

Timeline

  • 1086 – in a Durham place name.[8]
  • c. 1440 – a ravine.[8][16]
  • 1635 – a narrow stream.[8]
  • late 18th century – the spelling ghyll, in Wordsworth.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (British) A narrow, steep-sided, rocky valley or ravine, often wooded and with a stream at the bottom.[3][8][4]
  2. (British) A narrow mountain stream or brook.[3][8][4]

gill4 girl

Etymology

The girl is inherited from Middle English gil, also gille, from Gill, a short form of the woman's name Gillian,[16][2][3][19][17] which comes from French Juliane, from Latin Juliana.[4][16] It is also spelled jill.[4][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman or girl, often with contempt: before 1425, in "Coueytysse, þat gredy gille".[16] The name Gille itself appears in Chaucer's Miller's Tale (about 1390).[16] Hoad and Merriam-Webster date the common noun to the 15th century.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1465 the Paston letters could call a man "a good gille", an agreeable companion.[16] The name was paired with Jack for any man and woman, as in for Jack nor for Gill, for nobody,[16] and in Jack and Jill.[4] The form gill also named the ground ivy (gill-creep-by-ground, late 16th century, dialect) and the female ferret (mid 19th century).[4][15] Gill-flirt, a giddy young woman, is recorded from the 1630s.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – Gille as a woman's name, in Chaucer.[16]
  • before 1425 – a woman, girl.[16]
  • late 16th century – ground ivy (dialect).[4]
  • 1630s – gill-flirt, a giddy young woman.[10]
  • mid 19th century – a female ferret.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic, often capitalized) A girl or young woman; a sweetheart, usually paired with Jack.[3][4][16]
  2. (dialect) The ground ivy.[3][4][15]

Word family

  • gill-over-the-ground

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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 27 28 29 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ 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 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b c d e f 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)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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)
  17. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  19. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt