vantage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vauntage, also vantage,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vantage,^{[4][5][3][6][7][8]} a shortened form of avantage (“advantage, profit, superiority”),^{[4][3][9][10][11]} the source of advantage.^[6][12][13] The MED also takes it as a shortening of the Middle English noun avauntage.^[2] The OED dates the Anglo-Norman form to 1302,^[4] and the Old French noun is recorded in Anglo-Norman from the later 12th century.^[14] The Old French word is formed from avant (“before”), probably through an unrecorded Late Latin *abantaticum, from Latin abante (“from before”), from ab (“from”) and ante (“before”).^[3] It is also the source of vantaggio, ventaja and vantagem.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A position of superiority, especially in a fight, or a position from which some benefit can be gained: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[5][2] and also in the romance Sir Tristrem (about 1330).^[2] Etymonline dates vauntage, a position of superiority or dominance, to about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant a benefit or a favourable result, and a monetary gain or profit;^[2] the OED records "advantage, profit" from about 1380, in Wyclif, and calls it now archaic.^[4][8] From the 15th to the 17th century it could mean an additional amount, as in to the vantage or and a vantage, "and a little more".^[4][9][8] Advantage or superiority in a contest, and a position likely to give it, is recorded from 1523, in Lord Berners's Froissart,^[4] and phrases such as coign of vantage and place of vantage from about 1577.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave the senses gain, superiority, and opportunity, quoting Sidney, Shakespeare and Bacon.^[15] Vantage ground is recorded from the 1610s, and vantage point, a favourable position, from 1865.^[3][5] In lawn tennis vantage has been used for advantage since the 19th century.^[8][9] The verb vantage, to benefit, is recorded from about 1460 and is now archaic.^[4][9]

Timeline

• before 1325 – a position of superiority or advantage.^[5][2]
• c. 1380 – advantage, benefit, profit (now archaic).^[4]
• c. 1430 – money gain, profit (obsolete by 1570).^[4]
• c. 1460 – verb, to profit or benefit someone.^[4]
• 1523 – superiority in a contest; a position likely to give it.^[4]
• 1529 – an additional amount, as in to the vantage (obsolete by 1706).^[4]
• c. 1577 – coign of vantage, place of vantage.^[4]
• 1865 – vantage point.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A position or place that gives a good view or an advantage over others; a vantage point: From the hilltop the scouts had a clear vantage over the valley.^[16][17][9]
2. Superiority or an advantage in a contest.^[16][17][4]
3. (tennis) Advantage.^[16][9]
4. (archaic) Benefit, profit or gain.^[17][4][9]

Verb

1. (archaic) To benefit or profit someone.^[4][9][17]

Word family

• coign of vantage

Related words

• advantage
• advance
• avant-garde
• van
• vanguard

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster