gallant

English

English Wikipedia has articles on:

gallant and courage

Wikipedia Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• gallaunt (obsolete)

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”), a variant form of *wela, from Proto-Germanic *wela (whence well), 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/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ælənt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. Brave, valiant, courteous, especially with regard to male attitudes towards women.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds.

   • 1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 7:

     It is plain that the great majority of school children must be regarded, from the physical standpoint, as decidedly gallant little persons, who have wrestled through their infancy and have managed to come out of tribulations that have killed a large proportion of all the children of their birth-years.

2. honorable.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.
   • 1644 March 28 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, ; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, , published 1819, →OCLC:

     This town [is built in a very gallant place.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     our royal, good and gallant ship

Derived terms

• gallant soldier
• gallantly
• gallantry

Translations

Etymology 2

17th-century borrowing from French galant. See above.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡəˈlænt/, /ˈɡælənt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (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.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:libertine

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

     […] 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.

   • a. 1822 (date written), John Keats, “[Tragedies.] Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts.”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , published 1899, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 176, column 2, lines 140–144:

     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, and put the load / On the right shoulders; on that wretch's head, […]

3. (nautical) A 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

   • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; , London: John Murray, , →OCLC:

     During this period, we were the lions of the neighbourhood; and, no doubt, strangers from the distant villages were taken to see the "Karhowrees" (white men), in the same way that countrymen, in a city, are gallanted to the Zoological Gardens.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To handle with grace or in a modish manner.

   to gallant a fan

3. (transitive) To conduct, escort, convey.
   • 1849, Herman Melville, Mardi: And a Voyage Thither. , volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, , →OCLC:

     ... and the canoes of Vivenza, locking their yard-arms into those of the vanquished, very courteously gallanted them into their coral harbors.

4. To behave in a gallant fashion; to act the gallant.
   • 1840 February 7, The Sydney Herald, page 2, column 5:

     How different is the young, fun-loving, comical, quizzing, gallanting Captain Arthur Wellesley, when residing in his shooting lodge between Summerhill and Dangan, from the stern, cautious, careworn Fabius of the Peninsular war[.]

References

• “gallant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Welsh

Alternative forms

• gallan (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡaɬant/

Verb

gallant

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

Mutation