Gatekeep

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To control who is allowed to enter, take part in, or get access to a group, place, or resource
2. Restricting who can reach or join something by deciding who is admitted and who is kept out
3. Acting as the person or force that decides who gets through to a particular field, community, or opportunity

Etymology: "Gatekeep" is a back-formation: English speakers took the older noun "gatekeeper", which had long meant a person who guards a gate, and reshaped it into a verb by dropping the agent ending "-er" as if it were a suffix to be removed. The result runs the process in reverse, since the verb came from the noun that was itself built from "gate" and "keep". Both parts are old English stock. "Gate" traces back to the Old English "geat", meaning an opening or passage, while "keep" meant to guard, hold, or look after. Put together, a gatekeeper literally kept the gate, and the verb carried that sense of controlling who gets through an entrance. The verb's modern figurative use, meaning to restrict access to something, grew out of that literal image of a guard deciding who may pass. The source does not give a firm date for when the verb first appeared, so the usage history is best understood through its noun root.

Synonyms: control, restrict, screen

Antonyms: admit