gauntlet means protective armor for the hands, formerly thrown down as a challenge to combat. It carries an Arena rating of 1670, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gauntlet ranks #196 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #614 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,438 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #2,427 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
gauntlet is pronounced /ˈɡɔːnt.lət/.
Why “gauntlet” is a great word
A protective glove, historically armored and used as a symbolic object to issue a formal challenge, or a long glove covering the wrist. From Middle English *gauntelett*, from Old French *gantelet* ("gauntlet, diminutive of glove"), from *gant* ("glove"), from Frankish *want* ("glove, mitten"), from Proto-Germanic *wantuz* ("glove, mitten"). First attested in English in the early 15th century. Unlike a "mitten," which sheathes the fingers in communal warmth, or the abstract notion of a "challenge," a gauntlet is the specific, material token of defiance. It is the cold, articulated steel of a knight's fist, the supple kid leather drawn up a lady's forearm, and the heavy, clattering object flung onto frost-hardened ground. It is the understanding that some invitations to combat require something you can pick up, something you can see glinting in the torchlight—a singular, silent act that transforms polite space into a field of honor, where the promise of violence is staked not in words, but in the intimate, tactile ritual of a glove laid down like a will.
Etymology
From Middle English gauntelett, gantlett, a borrowing from Old French gantelet (“gauntlet worn by a knight in armor, a token of one's personality or person, and symbolizing a challenge”), diminutive of gant (“glove”), a borrowing from Frankish *want (“glove; mitten”) and reinforced by Medieval Latin wantus (“glove”) itself borrowed from the former, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz (“glove; mitten”). Cognate with Dutch want (“mitten; shroud”), German Low German Want (“shroud”), Danish vante (“mitten”), Swedish vante (“glove; mitten”), Faroese vøttur (“glove; mitten”).
noun
- Protective armor for the hands, formerly thrown down as a challenge to combat.
- A long glove covering the wrist.e.g.“The hawk no longer darts forth from the gauntlet to soar through the air for his prey.” — 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 40:
- A rope on which hammocks or clothes are hung for drying.
- An eruption of pellagra on the hands.
- Two parallel rows of attackers who strike at a criminal as punishment.
- A simultaneous attack from two or more sides.
- Any challenging, difficult, or painful ordeal, often one performed for atonement or punishment.e.g.“[John] Winthrop ran the gantlet of daily slights from his neighbors.” — 1858, John Gorham Palfrey, chapter XII, in History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 481:
- A fight against swarms of relatively minor enemies in the form of multiple waves, often but not always preceding a boss.
- Overlapping parallel rail tracks; either to allowing passage through a narrow opening in each direction without switching, or to allow vehicles of a larger gauge to pass through a station without hitting the platforms.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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