Etymologically
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vanguard

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 08:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈvanˌɡɑːd/[1]
  • US: /ˈvænˌɡɑɹd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English avaunt garde, also vantgard and vandgard,[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman avantgarde, also vantgarde,[6][7][8] a variant of Old French avant-garde.[7][2][4] The OED and Dictionary.com take the immediate source as the variant avangarde.[9][10] The English word is a shortening of the French compound,[11][5][12] which is formed from avant (“before, in front”), from Late Latin abante,[3][6][4] and Old French garde (“guard”), from garder (“to guard”).[3][2] An earlier English form, vaunt-ward, from about 1300, probably came from Anglo-Norman too and survives as vaward.[7][9] The same French word was borrowed again much later as avant-garde.[13] The French compound has equivalents in Italian vanguardia, Spanish vanguardia and Portuguese vanguarda.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The foremost division of an army: 1487, in a manuscript of Barbour's Bruce.[9] Barnhart finds vaunt garde probably about 1450,[4] and Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.[7] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from 1194–99 for the front part of an advancing army.[8]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "the front, or first line of the army", quoting Bacon and Milton.[14] The figurative sense, the people at the forefront of a movement or field, is quoted from 1833, in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus,[9] and Merriam-Webster applies it to the leaders of thought, taste or opinion, in art, letters or politics.[2] In Communist theory, after Lenin, the vanguard was the party elite that was to organize the masses for revolution, recorded in English from 1928 in a translation of Stalin.[9] In Northern Ireland Vanguard was the name of a party formed in 1972 as a breakaway from Ulster Unionism.[9] It was also the name of a variety of peach (1786).[9] The clipped form van has the same military sense.[12][2]

Timeline

  • c. 1450 – vaunt garde (Barnhart).[4]
  • 1487 – the foremost division of an army.[9]
  • 1503 – the spelling vanguarde.[4]
  • 1786 – a variety of peach.[9]
  • 1833 – figurative, the forefront of a movement.[9]
  • 1928 – the party elite in Communist theory.[9]
  • 1972 – a political party in Northern Ireland.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The leading units of an army or fleet; the van: The vanguard crossed the river before dawn.[15][2][9][12]
  2. The leading position in a movement or field, or the people who hold it: Her studio was in the vanguard of digital animation.[15][2][9]
  3. In Communist theory, the party elite that leads the masses to revolution.[9]

Word family

  • vanguardism
  • vanguardist
  • van
  • advance
  • advance guard
  • avant
  • avaunt
  • avant-garde
  • guard
  • rearguard
  • vaward

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins