gallant

English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From Middle English galant, galaunt, from Old French galant (“courteous; dashing; brave”), present participle of galer (“to rejoice; make merry”), from gale (“pomp; show; festivity; mirth”); either from Frankish *wala- (“good, well”), from Proto-Germanic *wal-, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”); or alternatively from Frankish *gail (“merry; mirthful; proud; luxuriant”), from Proto-Germanic *gailaz (“merry; excited; luxurious”), related to Dutch geil (“horny; lascivious; salacious; lecherous”), German geil (“randy; horny; lecherous; wicked”), Old English gāl (“wanton; wicked; bad”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡælənt/
  • Rhymes: -ælənt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

  1. Brave, valiant.
  2. Honorable.
    • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
      Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  3. Grand, noble.
  4. (obsolete) Showy; splendid; magnificent; gay; well-dressed.
Translations

Etymology 2

From French

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɡəˈlænt/, /ˈɡælənt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɡəˈlɑnt/, /ˈɡælənt/
  • Rhymes: -ænt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

  1. Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous.
    • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 17:
      I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me. But this good old Mr. Woodhouse, I wish you had heard his gallant speeches to me at dinner. Oh! I assure you I began to think my caro sposo would be absolutely jealous.
Translations

Noun

gallant (plural gallants)

  1. (dated) A fashionable young man who is polite and attentive to women.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2
      PROSPERO: […] this gallant which thou see'st / Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd /with grief,—that beauty's canker,—thou mightst call him / A goodly person […]
  2. One who woos, a lover, a suitor, a seducer.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
      […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her gallant.
    • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act III, Scene II, verses 140-143
      The ignominy of that whisper’d tale
      About a midnight gallant, seen to climb
      A window to her chamber neighbour’d near,
      I will from her turn off, […]
  3. (nautical) topgallant
Translations

Verb

gallant (third-person singular simple present gallants, present participle gallanting, simple past and past participle gallanted)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To attend or wait on (a lady).
    to gallant ladies to the play
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To handle with grace or in a modish manner.
    to gallant a fan

References

  • gallant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Welsh

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡaɬant/

Verb

gallant

  1. (literary) third-person plural present / future of gallu

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radicalsoftnasalaspirate
gallant allant ngallant unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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