Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Gallant

We're reading our first Henty book. The word gallant appears frequently. I just kept guessing at how to pronounce the word, because I'd heard both the first and second syllables stressed. So today I did a novel thing: I looked it up in the dictionary.

So, in case y'all are confused as I was, here's the deal. When the word means noble or brave or stately or handsome, then it's pronounced GAL-lunt. When the word is used to mean that a man is courteous toward women, polite, and attentive to them, accompanying a woman in a mannerly way, then he is gal-LONT.

3 comments:

  1. I am so happy to have this information. We were right, then, when we read Goofus and Gallant in Highlights years ago as GALlant instead of Gal LONT.

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  2. So both pronunciations would fit Matt, then... :-D

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  3. Ah, Rachel, truly spoken by a girl who just celebrated a one-month anniversary!

    And Mom, yup, he was GALlant. Today in our story (the one that keeps using the word gallant) it was pronounced galLANT several times. But, hey, I knew when to pronounce it which way. Andrew was amused. He hadn't noticed up til today how often the word is used in this book!

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