gauntlet
.
Searchable Lemmata: gauntelet (ME), gawntled (W), gauntlet (MdE).
Alternate Forms: gantelet, gantlet, gantlett, gaunteletts, gauntelettys, gauntlettes, gawntletys.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Armour;
glove with a deep cuff; most often referring to a plated, armour glove, lined with leather or similar (described as being made of whalebone in fourteenth-century account). Later gauntlets could be made in imitation in cloth or leather [MMTP +Tournaments]. An informative, if rather dated discussion of artefacts may be found in 'Gauntlets' by the Viscount Dillon, in Archaeological Journal LXX [Lee-Dillon, H.A. (1913), 95-106].(ante 1400 still in current use)
3. Dyn traws fûm yn dwyn tros fôr /Dur Melan i dir Maelor. / Clos harnais, fyclau seirnial, / Cwmplid a welid o Iâl. / Curas a pholrwn cywrain, / Garbras a dwy fwmbras fain; / Dwy gawntled, a gorsied gên, / A besgur rhag pob asgen. / A phâr cadarn las harnais / A’r traed fal chwarterau’r ais. / Sabitwrs ar y cwrs yn cau / Wrth ddeuflaen y gwarthaflau , / A phob metal o Felan / O dri thwits rhwng dŵr a thân.
Poetic.
[GPC GGl (39.1-15) circa 1445/1475]
4. [980] ... And for the regyon off Ynde, that in the este hat the syght, That asure and gold gerundy bare ... [990] ... And alle hys odyr harnes off bryght stele With-owte depeyntyng, as hys rerebracys and hys gorget, Hys basenet and hys gauntelettys
Heroic, Romance.
[MED Metham AC ((Gar 141) 980-991) 1449]
Sex: Male Use: Military Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Hand.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, A borrowing of medieval French gantelet, diminutive of gant (q.v.) 'glove, gauntlet'. The word gantelet is attested in continental Old French from the thirteenth century in the sense 'gauntlet', but does not appear as a headword in the AND; generally gant was used in this sense in Anglo-French, or in phrases such as 'gant de plate' 'glove of plate, gauntlet'. It is possible that the word was used in Anglo-French but is not attested, or that the word came directly from continental Middle French to Middle English around 1400. The Welsh is a borrowing from ME.
WF: Derivation
Etym Cog:
References:
