different between gallant vs leman

English

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”), from Proto-Germanic *wal-, from Proto-Indo-European *welh?- (“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 g?l (“wanton; wicked; bad”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æl?nt/
• Rhymes: -æl?nt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. brave, valiant.
2. honorable.

   • 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.

   • This town [is built in a very gallant place.

Related terms

• gallantly
• gallantry

Translations

Etymology 2

From French

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???lænt/, /??æl?nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???l?nt/, /??æl?nt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous.

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).

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

References

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

Welsh

Alternative forms

• gallan (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?ant/

Verb

gallant

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

Mutation

English

Alternative forms

• leaman
• lemman (13th–17th centuries)
• lemon (15th–16th centuries)

Etymology

From Middle English lemman, variant of leofman, from Old English *l?ofmann ("lover; sweetheart"; attested as a personal name), equivalent to lief +? man ("beloved person").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?m?n/, /?li?m?n/
• Rhymes: -?m?n

Noun

leman (plural lemans)

1. (archaic) One beloved; a lover, a sweetheart of either sex (especially a secret lover, gallant, or mistress).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     Faire Venus seemde vnto his bed to bring
     Her, whom he waking euermore did weene,
     To be the chastest flowre, that ay did spring
     On earthly braunch, the daughter of a king,
     Now a loose Leman to vile seruice bound […].

   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     The prisoner I speak of is better booty—a jolly monk riding to visit his leman, an I may judge by his horse-gear and wearing apparel.

2. (often negative) A paramour.
   • In modern English this might read:
     There really is very little difference between a wife of honourable rank if she is faithless in how she deals with her body,
     and a penniless woman without rank, except that if they both behave badly then, because of the gentlewoman's rank,
     people call her his lady love, but call the poor woman his slut or his leman.
   • 1915, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates: The Fisherman and his Soul:

     '...They are lost, I tell thee, they are lost. For them there is no heaven nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.’
     ‘Father,’ cried the young Fisherman, ‘thou knowest not what thou sayest. Once in my net I snared the daughter of a King. She is fairer than the morning star, and whiter than the moon. For her body I would give my soul, and for her love I would surrender heaven. Tell me what I ask of thee, and let me go in peace.’
     ‘Away! Away!’ cried the Priest: ‘thy leman is lost, and thou shalt be lost with her.’
     And he gave him no blessing, but drove him from his door.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:

     And he sent the news to William the Lyon, sitting drinking the wine and fondling his bonny lemans in Edinburgh Town, and William made him the Knight of Kinraddie […].

Anagrams

• Elman, Melan, lamen, nelma