gallant

• gallaunt (obsolete)

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 *welh₁- (“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 gāl (“wanton; wicked; bad”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡælənt/
• Rhymes: -ælənt

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. Brave, valiant.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds.

2. Honorable.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0105:

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Evelyn

     The town is built in a very gallant place.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     our royal, good and gallant ship

• gallantly
• gallantry

From French

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡəˈlænt/, /ˈɡælənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡəˈlɑnt/, /ˈɡælənt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous.
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 17:

     I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me. But this good old Mr. Woodhouse, I wish you had heard his gallant speeches to me at dinner. Oh! I assure you I began to think my caro sposo would be absolutely jealous.

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

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).

   to gallant ladies to the play

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

   to gallant a fan

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

• gallan (colloquial)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡaɬant/

gallant

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