gilt

gilt¹ gold layer; gilded

Etymology

The word for a coating of gold is inherited from Middle English gilt, also gilte, the past participle of gilden (“to gild”) used as an adjective,^[2][1][5][6] later also as a noun.^[2][7][6] The verb is gyldan (“to cover with gold”),^[5][3] formed on the Germanic base of gold;^[2][5] in Old English it is found as the prefixed past participle gegyld.^[3][2] Barnhart takes the adjective as a blend of the participle with the older Middle English adjective of the same spelling, meaning golden.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Covered with a thin layer of gold, gilded: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to about 1400,^[5] and Barnhart the form gilten to probably before 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

As a noun, gilt is gold leaf or gold paint laid on a surface from 1429,^[2] or 1432 in Barnhart and the MED, where it is siluer and gelt in a parish inventory;^[6][7] the OED thinks the noun arose from the adjective placed after the noun, as in silver gilt.^[2] From 1497 it was also money, a sense later slang;^[2][8] Shakespeare uses it so in Henry V.^[8] Johnson (1755) called the noun, "golden show", obsolete.^[9] The figurative sense of a false, superficial glitter is recorded by Collins and Merriam-Webster,^[10][1] and to take the gilt off the gingerbread, to make something less attractive, dates from 1837.^[2][11] In finance, gilt-edged was used from 1881 of very safe stocks;^[2] since 1936 a gilt has itself been such a fixed-interest security issued by the British government.^[2][10]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – adjective, covered with gold, gilded.^[2]
• before 1400 – gilt as a verb, to gild.^[2][11]
• 1429 – noun, gold leaf or gold paint used to coat a surface.^[2] Barnhart's first record is from 1432.^[6]
• 1497 – money.^[2]
• 1837 – to take the gilt off the gingerbread.^[2]
• 1936 – a gilt-edged British government security.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with gold or with a gold-coloured coating; gilded: a gilt picture frame.^[1][10][2]

Noun

1. Gold or a substance that looks like gold, laid on a surface; gilding.^[10][1][2]
2. A superficial or false appearance of worth; glitter, glamour.^[10][1]
3. (chiefly British) A fixed-interest security issued by the British government; a gilt-edged security, usually in the plural: Pension funds moved into gilts.^[10][1][2]
4. (slang) Money.^[1][2][8]
5. take the gilt off the gingerbread: to spoil the attractive part of something.^[10][2][11]

Word family

• gilt-edged
• ungilt
• gilthead

gilt² young sow

Etymology

The young sow is inherited from Middle English gilte, also gylte and gelt,^[1][7] borrowed from Old Norse gyltr (“young sow”), also gylta.^{[2][1][7][11][3]} Merriam-Webster compares Old English gelte (“young sow”) and Middle Low German gelte (“spayed sow”), and relates it to geld;^[1] Weekley relates it to the dialect word galt, a boar.^[12] The OED takes the forms with e as altered after geld.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young sow: about 1350, in the Nominale, in the series bor, sowe and gilte.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word now usually means a young female pig that has not yet had a litter.^[2][1] In the 19th century it was in general dialect use in Scotland, the north and the Midland counties, with forms such as gelt, yelt and yilt, and with meanings that varied from place to place.^[13] The cant dictionary of B. E. (about 1698) has gilt for a slattern, perhaps the same word.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – a young sow.^[2][7]
• c. 1698 – in cant, a slattern, perhaps the same word.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young female pig, especially one that has not yet produced a litter: The farmer kept three gilts for breeding.^[1][2][11]