gelt

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɛlt/
• Rhymes: -ɛlt

From Irish geilt.

gelt (plural gelts)

1. (rare) A lunatic.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.7:

     She […] like a ghastly Gelt whose wits are reaved, / Ran forth in hast with hideous outcry […]

Variation of gilt.

gelt (plural gelts)

1. (obsolete) Gilding; gilt.

From Middle English, from gelden (“to geld, castrate”). More at geld.

gelt

1. simple past tense and past participle of geld

gelt (plural gelts)

1. A gelding.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

From Middle High German gelt (Modern German Geld), from Old High German gelt (“payment, money”), from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gheldh- (“to pay”). Reinforced by Yiddish געלט‎ (gelt). Cognate with native geld, Dutch geld (“money”), Danish gjæld (“debt”), Swedish gäld (“debt”).

gelt (usually uncountable, plural gelts)

1. (slang) Money.
   • 1948, William Burroughs, letter, 5 Jun 1948:

     Have bought some farm land in Rio Grande Valley which should bring in a sizeable bundle of gelts come cotton picking time.

2. tribute; tax
   • Fuller

     All these the king granted unto them […] free from all gelts and payments, in a most full and ample manner.

From Yiddish געלט‎ (gelt). See above for more.

gelt (usually uncountable, plural gelts)

1. (Judaism) Money, especially that given as a gift on Hanukkah or used in games of dreidel.
2. (Judaism) Chocolate candy in the shape of coins, usually wrapped in metallic foil, usually eaten on Hanukkah and often used for games of dreidel.
3. (archaic, Britain, thieves' cant and Polari) Money.
   • c. 1698, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew:

     The is no Gelt to be got.

• (thieves' cant): rum-gelt (“new money”), smear-gelt (“bribe”)

Back-formation from gelta (“to bark”).

• IPA^(key): /cɛl̥t/
• Rhymes: -ɛl̥t

gelt n (genitive singular gelts, no plural)

1. barking

   Synonyms: gjamm, gá