different between guerdon vs compensate

English

Alternative forms

• gerdon (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English guerdon, guerdoun, gardone, from Old French guerdon, guerredon, guarredon, werdon, from Medieval Latin widerd?num, alteration of widerl?num, from West Germanic (whence Old High German widarl?n, Old English wiþerl?an), literally ‘back-payment’, with the second element assimilated to Latin d?num (“gift”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????.d?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???.d?n/
• Hyphenation: guer?don

Noun

guerdon (plural guerdons)

1. (now literary) A reward, prize or recompense for a service; an accolade.
   • 1567 Arthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses Bk. 2 lines 361–3

     Is this the guerdon wherewithall ye quite my fruitfulnesse?

     Is this the honor that ye gave for my plenteousnesse

     And dutie done with true intent?

   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     "That will I do blithely," replied the Pilgrim, "and without guerdon; my oath, for a time, prohibits me from touching gold."

   • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, ch.15

     Melanie might have given him his new coat but this sash was her gift, her own secret guerdon for him to wear into battle, something that would make him remember her every time he looked at it.

Translations

Verb

guerdon (third-person singular simple present guerdons, present participle guerdoning, simple past and past participle guerdoned)

1. (transitive) To give such a reward to.

Anagrams

• go under, grounde, undergo, ungored

French

Noun

guerdon m (plural guerdons)

1. (archaic) reward

Old French

Noun

guerdon m (oblique plural guerdons, nominative singular guerdons, nominative plural guerdon)

1. Alternative form of guerredon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin compensatus, past participle of compensare (“to weight together one thing against another, balance, make good, later also shorten, spare”), from com- (“together”) + pensare (“to weight”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m.p?n.se?t/, /?k?m.p?n.se?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?m.p?n?se?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Verb

compensate (third-person singular simple present compensates, present participle compensating, simple past and past participle compensated)

1. To do (something good) after (something bad) happens
2. To pay or reward someone in exchange for work done or some other consideration.

   It is hard work, but they will compensate you well for it.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To make up for; to do something in place of something else; to correct, satisfy; to reach an agreement such that the scales are literally or (metaphorically) balanced; to equalize or make even.

   His loud voice cannot compensate for a lack of personality.

   To compensate me for his tree landing on my shed, my neighbor paved my driveway.

   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vanity of the World, Preface

     The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries.

4. To adjust or adapt to a change, often a harm or deprivation.

   I don't like driving that old car because it always steers a little to the left so I'm forever compensating for that when I drive it. Trust me, it gets annoying real fast.

   To compensate for his broken leg, Gary uses crutches.

Synonyms

• (to do something good): See Thesaurus:compensate
• (to pay): guerdon, reimburse; see also Thesaurus:reimburse
• (to adjust to a change): acclimatize, acclimate, accommodate, accustom, adapt; see also Thesaurus:accustom
• (to make up for): See Thesaurus:atone or Thesaurus:offset

Derived terms

• recompensate

Related terms

• compensation
• compensatory
• compensable
• compensably
• recompense

Translations

Further reading

• compensate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• compensate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Italian

Verb

compensate

1. second-person plural present indicative of compensare
2. second-person plural imperative of compensare
3. feminine plural of compensato

Latin

Verb

comp?ns?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of comp?ns?