Wiktionary

gallant

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology 1

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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

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Adjective

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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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
      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.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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17th-century borrowing from French galant.[1] See above.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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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
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Noun

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gallant (plural gallants)

  1. (dated) A fashionable young man who is polite and attentive to women.
    Synonyms: blade, blood, masher; see also Thesaurus:dandy
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
      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, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] 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
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Verb

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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
  3. (transitive) To conduct, escort, convey.
  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

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  1. ^ “gallant”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Welsh

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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gallant

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

Mutation

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Mutated forms of gallant
radical soft nasal aspirate
gallant allant ngallant unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

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