guerdon

English

WOTD – 14 March 2009

Alternative forms

• gerdon (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English guerdon, guerdoun, gardone, from Old French guerdon, guerredon, guarredon, werdon, from Medieval Latin widerdōnum, alteration of widerlōnum, from West Germanic (whence Old High German widarlōn, Old English wiþerlēan), literally ‘back-payment’, with the second element assimilated to Latin dōnum (“gift”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: gûrʹdn
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡəː.dən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɝ.dən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: guer‧don

Noun

guerdon (plural guerdons)

1. (now literary) A reward, prize or recompense for a service; an accolade.
   • c. 1366, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 2607-10:

     For would she of her gentlenesse,
     Withouten more, me ones kesse,
     It were to me a great guerdoon.
     Release of all my passion […]

   • 1567, Ovid, “The Seconde Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, lines 361–63:

     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?

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     Done to death by slanderous tongues
     Was the Hero that here lies:
     Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
     Gives her fame which never dies.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     He hearkned, and did stay from further harmes,
     To gayne so goodly guerdon, as she spake […]

   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

     Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
     (That last infirmity of noble mind)
     To scorn delights and live laborious days;
     But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
     And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
     Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears,
     And slits the thin-spun life.

   • 1782, William Cowper, “Charity”, in Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq.:

     Verse, like the laurel its immortal meed,
     Should be the guerdon of a noble deed

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1826 April 22, “G.”, “The Dukedom (from ‘The News of Literature and Fashion, Science and Art.’)”, in The Spirit of the Times; or, Essence of the Periodicals; Concentrating Every Week, All that is Worthy (as Strictly Regarding the Time) of Being Preserved, from the Whole of Our Newspapers, Magazines, &c., volume I, number XXIX, London: Printed by Milne, Banfield, and Duckworth [...] for J. Scott, →OCLC, page 436, column 1:

     I had some faint recollection of having a penny-piece in my waistcoat pocket, and, pleased with the service he had rendered to us, I gave it him as his guerdon. "Thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir," he cried, and immediately returned to his station near the footway.

   • 1840, Robert Browning, Sordello, Book IV:

     "Here, minstrel, drive bad thoughts away! Sing! Take
     "My glove for guerdon!"

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 73, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     You treat me like a slave, and bid me bow to my master! Is this the guerdon of a free maiden—is this the price of a life’s passion?

   • 1917, Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, Poems “To the American People”:

     Sons of honour, nobly fathered, scions of the sturdy brood,
     Who from age to age have gathered strength and duty in the blood,
     Strength to bear the distressed burden, duty which has cost them dear—
     Wounds for wage and death for guerdon—Lo! the final hour is here.
     […]

   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 15, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     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

a reward, prize or recompense

• Bulgarian: награда (bg) f (nagrada), възнаграждение (bg) n (vǎznagraždenie)
• Czech: odměna (cs) f
• Galician: galardón m
• Hungarian: jutalom (hu), díj (hu)
• Russian: награ́да (ru) f (nagráda), пре́мия (ru) f (prémija), приз (ru) m (priz)
• Spanish: galardón (es) m

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.
   • 1593, Christopher Marlowe, The Massacre at Paris, I:ii:

     And when thou see'st the Admiral ride by,
     Discharge thy musket, and perform his death;
     And then I'll guerdon thee with store of crowns.

   • 1847, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Princess, Book I:

     […] him we gave a costly bribe
     To guerdon silence […]

Derived terms

• guerdonable
• guerdonless

 

Further reading

• “guerdon”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “guerdon, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “guerdon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “guerdon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “guerdon”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume II, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 2648, columns 1–2.

Anagrams

• go under, grounde, undergo, ungored

French

Noun

guerdon m (plural guerdons)

1. (archaic) reward

Further reading

• “guerdon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Noun

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

1. Alternative form of guerredon