guante

Forms

guante m (plural guantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is a Germanic word, probably borrowed from Catalan guant, which is from Frankish *want.^[2][3][4] Corominas rejects a direct borrowing from Gothic: there the word would probably have been *wantus, and the final ⟨-e⟩ of the Castilian word points to a foreign source.^[2] The Catalan route is supported by the early frequency of the Castilian form in Aragonese inventories of the 14th and 15th centuries.^[2] Prat Sabater counts it among the Catalan loans that took a final ⟨-e⟩ in Castilian.^[5] Wiktionary takes it from Old Occitan guant instead, and DICCA-XV from French gant.^[1][6] The Old Aragonese variant guente certainly comes from the French word.^[2] The Catalan word itself is recorded from the end of the 13th century, in Desclot.^[7]

The Frankish word continues Proto-Germanic *wantuz (“mitten”), also the source of Old Norse vǫttr, Swedish vante and Dutch want.^[8][2] Kroonen derives it, probably, from *windan- (“to wind”).^[8] Orel calls it unclear, and Corominas says its origin is unknown.^[9][2] The Romans had no glove of their own, so the Romance languages had no inherited word for it; the old Castilian word was lúa.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Navarrese Fuero General de Navarra (1300–1330), which tells how a bride is to be given goantes for her hands.^[11] Corominas found the word first in an Aragonese inventory of 1331; his Breve diccionario dates it in Castilian to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia, who glosses Latin chirotheca as guante.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Aragonese inventories of 1369–1397 list gloves of iron, the armoured gauntlet: unos guentes de fierro viellos “some old iron gloves”.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 describes how a soldier challenged another by throwing his glove on the ground, the challenged man taking it up to accept.^[12] Autoridades (1734) uses guante for the hand itself, in echar el guante “to lay hands on”, and records the plural guantes for a tip given to a craftsman beyond the agreed price.^[13] It also reports the Brocense's view that the glove was named after the Flemish city of Ghent.^[13]

In the Americas the word took local senses: a whip or scourge in Chile, a bribe in older Mexican usage, and a baseball glove in Central America, the Caribbean and Colombia.^[14][15][16] The Academy's 19th-century editions explained it by a Swedish word, and Alemany (1917) by an old Flemish vante.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1300–1330 – the Fuero General de Navarra has goantes.^[11]
• 1331 – an Aragonese inventory, Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1368 – the Aragonese variant guente first appears.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia records the word in Castilian.^[3][2]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, a dozen pairs of gloves in Puerto Rico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the custom of throwing down the glove as a challenge.^[12]
• 1611 – the derivative enguantar is first recorded.^[3]
• 1734 – Autoridades records guantes for a gratuity and echar el guante.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives an etymology, from Swedish.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A glove: a covering for the hand, usually of leather, cloth or knitted fabric, with a separate sheath for each finger.^[4][1]
2. A protective glove of rubber, leather or other material, such as those worn by surgeons and boxers.^[4]
3. (rare, formerly mostly in the plural) A gratuity or bonus, especially one given on top of the price of something sold.^[4][13]
4. (baseball, Caribbean, Central America, Colombia) A large padded mitt worn by fielders to catch the ball.^[16][20]
5. (Chile, dated) A scourge for whipping, used in schools.^[15][14]

Word family

• guantada
• guantero
• enguantar
• guantazo
• guantear
• guantera

Related words

• aguantar
• Catalan guant
• French gant

Usage notes

Set phrases include arrojar el guante “to throw down the gauntlet, to challenge”, echar el guante “to catch, to arrest” and como un guante “meek, docile; fitting perfectly”.^[4][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 242
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guante
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. guante
5. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 144
6. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. guante
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 694
8. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. guante
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 944
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 86
14. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 450
15. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 544
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 856
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos