different between grace vs gallant

English

Etymology

From Middle English grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin gr?tia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from gr?tus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?erH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful.

The word displaced the native Middle English held, hield (“grace”) (from Old English held, hyld (“grace”)), Middle English este (“grace, favour, pleasure”) (from Old English ?ste (“grace, kindness, favour”)), Middle English athmede(n) (“grace”) (from Old English ?adm?du (“grace”)), Middle English are, ore (“grace, mercy, honour”) (from Old English ?r (“honour, grace, kindness, mercy”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??e?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Noun

grace (countable and uncountable, plural graces)

1. (countable, uncountable) Charming, pleasing qualities.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, "Critical Examniation of the Style of Mr. Addison in No. 411 of The Spectator" in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

     I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing.

2. (countable) A short prayer of thanks before or after a meal.

3. (countable, card games) In the games of patience or solitaire: a special move that is normally against the rules.
4. (countable, music) A grace note.
5. (uncountable) Elegant movement; balance or poise.

6. (uncountable, finance) An allowance of time granted to a debtor during which he or she is free of at least part of his normal obligations towards the creditor.
   • 1990, Claude de Bèze, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, University Press, page 153:

     With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.

8. (uncountable, theology) Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.

9. An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

grace (third-person singular simple present graces, present participle gracing, simple past and past participle graced)

1. (transitive) To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.
2. (transitive) To dignify or raise by an act of favour; to honour.

   • He might, at his pleasure, grace […] or disgrace whom he would in court.

3. (transitive) To supply with heavenly grace.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hall to this entry?)
4. (transitive, music) To add grace notes, cadenzas, etc., to.

Synonyms

• mense

Translations

Further reading

• grace on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cager

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French grace, from Latin gr?tia.

Alternative forms

• graz, crace, gras, grase

Pronunciation

• (Early ME) IPA^(key): /??ra?ts?/
• IPA^(key): /??ra?s(?)/

Noun

grace (plural graces or grace)

1. Various (Christian) theological meanings, usually as an attribute of God:
   1. The grace of God; divine aid or beneficence.
   2. A gift or sign of God; a demonstration of divine power.
   3. guidance, direction (especially divine)
2. luck, destiny (especially positive or beneficial)
3. niceness, esteem, positive demeanour
4. beneficence, goodwill, good intentions
5. gracefulness, elegance; aptness, competence.
6. A present; a helpful or kind act.
7. relief, relenting, forgiveness
8. A prayer, especially one preceding a meal.
9. (rare) repute, credit
10. (rare) misfortune, misadventure, doom
11. (rare, Late Middle English) unfairness, partisanship

Related terms

• graceful
• graceles
• gracen
• gracious

Descendants

• English: grace
• Scots: grace
• Yola: greash

References

• “gr?ce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.

Etymology 2

From Old English græs.

Noun

grace

1. Alternative form of gras

Old French

Alternative forms

• gratia (10th century)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gr?tia.

Noun

grace f (oblique plural graces, nominative singular grace, nominative plural graces)

1. grace; favor
2. grace; gracefulness; elegance

Descendants

• French: grâce
• ? Middle English: grace, graz, crace, gras, grase
  • English: grace
  • Scots: grace
  • Yola: greash

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (grace, supplement)
• grace on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

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