Gaunt

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɡɔːnt/

Definitions

1. Extremely thin and bony in appearance, especially due to suffering, hunger, or age
2. Marked by a skeletal and emaciated figure, typically resulting from prolonged starvation, illness, or fatigue
3. Having an unhealthily thin and haggard look often caused by neglect, malnutrition, or a serious illness

Etymology: The origin of "gaunt" is genuinely unsettled, and the leading candidates point in opposite directions. One proposal links it to Old French "gent" meaning "elegant" or "noble," which would mean the word once praised a slender figure. Scholars writing in the early twentieth century suggested this, noting that the earliest English sense was the neutral or even positive "slender," before the meaning shifted toward starvation and illness. A rival theory, argued by the linguist Leo Spitzer in 1944, ties the word instead to a Norman French diminutive meaning "yellowish," derived from Latin "galbinus." On this view, the word's first association was with a sickly pallor rather than with slimness, which would fit the modern sense of a hollow, wasted face. Other suggestions connect it to a North Germanic group of words meaning a stick or peg, as in Old Norse "gandr," a magic staff, and Norwegian "gand," a thin, pointed stick or a tall, thin man. That link would make "gaunt" a word for something lean and narrow long before it described a person, though the sound and meaning changes involved are difficult to demonstrate.

Synonyms: emaciated, thin, haggard, skeletal, bony

Antonyms: plump, full, overweight