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Origin and history of gauntlet

gauntlet(n.1)

"glove," early 15c., gantelet, from Old French gantelet (13c.) "gauntlet worn by a knight in armor," also a token of one's personality or person, and in medieval custom symbolizing a challenge, as in tendre son gantelet "throw down the gauntlet" (a sense found in English by 1540s). The Old French word is a semi-diminutive or double-diminutive of gant "glove" (12c.), earlier wantos (7c.), from Frankish *wanth-, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz "glove" (source also of Middle Dutch want "mitten," East Frisian want, wante, Old Norse vöttr "glove," Danish vante "mitten"), which apparently is related to Old High German wintan, Old English windan "turn around, wind" (see wind (v.1)).

The name must orig. have applied to a strip of cloth wrapped about the hand to protect it from sword-blows, a frequent practice in the Icelandic sagas. [Buck]

Italian guanto, Spanish guante likewise are ultimately from Germanic. The spelling with -u- was established from 1500s.

gauntlet(n.2)

military punishment in which offender runs between rows of men who beat him in passing; see gantlet.

Entries linking to gauntlet

gantlet(n.)

"military punishment in which offender runs between rows of men who beat him in passing," 1640s, gantlope, gantelope, from Swedish gatlopp "passageway," from Old Swedish gata "lane" (see gate (n.)) + lopp "course," related to löpa "to run" (see leap (v.)). Probably borrowed by English soldiers during Thirty Years' War.

By normal evolution the Modern English form would be *gatelope, but the current spelling (first attested 1660s, not fixed until mid-19c.) is from influence of gauntlet (n.1) "a glove," "there being some vague association with 'throwing down the gauntlet' in challenge" [Century Dictionary].

wind(v.1)

"move by turning and twisting," Middle English winden, from Old English windan "to turn, twist, plait, curl, brandish, swing" (class III strong verb; past tense wand, past participle wunden), from Proto-Germanic *windan "to wind," from PIE *wendh- "to turn, wind, weave" (source also of Latin viere "twist, plait, weave," vincire "bind;" Lithuanian vyti "twist, wind").

The verb wend is its causative form, and it is not always clear in Middle English which is meant. Also compare wander. The past tense and past participle merged in Middle English.

The meaning "to twine, entwine oneself around" is from 1590s; the transitive sense of "turn or twist round and round (on something) is from c. 1300. The meaning "set a watch, clockwork, etc. in operating mode by tightening its spring" is from c. 1600.

To wind down "come to a conclusion" is recorded from 1952; to wind up "come to a conclusion" is recorded from 1825; it was used earlier in a transitive sense of "put (affairs) in order in advance of a final settlement" (1780).

Of a corpse, "to enshroud" (c. 1300), hence winding sheet (n.), attested from early 15c.

Germanic cognates include Old Saxon windan, Old Norse vinda, Old Frisian winda, Dutch winden, Old High German wintan, German winden, Gothic windan "to wind."

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