2020-10-02 ศัพท์ ที่มักสับสน ชุด G – gantlet -gauntlet – gamut

Revision G

2020-10-02

ศัพท์ ที่มักสับสน ชุด G – gantlet -gauntlet – gamut

การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้อง ในที่นี้ เป็นไป ตามมาตรฐาน ของภาษา

การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง “Gantlet” = ‘GANT-lit’

ออกเสียง “Gauntlet” = ‘GAWNT-lit’

ออกเสียง “Gamut” = ‘GAM-uht’

Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree

gantlet

a railroad track construction used in narrow places; an ordeal

Not to be confused with:

gauntlet – a glove; a challenge: take up the gauntlet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

Word History:

The two words spelled gauntlet may share associations with medieval violence, but they have separate origins.

The word gauntlet used in the idiom to throw down the gauntlet comes from the Old French word gantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove."

(The idiom makes reference to the medieval custom of throwing down a glove in challenging an adversary to combat.)

The gauntlet used in to run the gauntlet is an alteration of the earlier English form gantlope, which came from the Swedish word gatlopp, a compound of gata, "lane," and lopp, "course," a word related to lope and leap.

The Swedish word for this traditional form of punishment, in which two lines of people beat a person forced to run between them, probably became known to English speakers as a result of the Thirty Years' War. Sweden played a leading role in the coalition of Protestant countries that fought against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, and at the end of the war, in 1648, the Swedish empire emerged as a great power of Europe.

It was during this period of expanding Swedish influence that gatlopp entered English. It seems, however, that from the moment English speakers borrowed the word, they inserted an n into the pronunciation of gatlopp—in the earliest known attestation of the word in English, dating from 1646, it is spelled gantelope.

The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the other gauntlet, "a protective glove," eventually leading to the identical spellings used today.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Usage Notes

'Gamut' and 'Gambit' (and 'Gauntlet' Too)

Know whento use (or run) each.

Here's a pair of words: gambit and gamut.

Though spelled differently enough, their pronunciation is almost identicalbecause of the schwa vowel sound in the second syllable of both:

It's perhaps for this reason that the less common word—gambit—sometimes is used where the context in fact calls for gamut.

Did you put gambit in for the first one and gamut in for the second? Well done. Now we'll look at why each goes where it does.

As discussed, gambit is the less common of this pair.

It's most often used to refer to something done or said in order to gain an advantage or to produce a desired result, as when Harry did his little dance for his friend. Gambit often appears in the phrase "opening gambit," where it means "first move."

The original opening gambit is a chess move—a player's first in a game—in which a bishop's pawn is sacrificed to gainsome advantage.

Later, the word came to refer toother chess openings as well.

The word gamut is most often used to mean "an entire range or series,"

as in the sentence about the wide range of Harrys' dancing skills.

That's the word's metaphorical use.

Gamut originally referred (and still does refer, for those in the know) to the whole series of recognized musical notes.

Even that meaning, though, constitutes a straying from the word's roots: gamut comes from a Middle English word for the lowest note on the musical scale developed by an 11th century musical theorist.

We most often see gambit misused for gamut in the phrase "run the ____."

To remember that it's run the gamut perhaps consider the "u"in both run and gamut.

The phrase "run the ____" is frequently completed with another g-word, but to communicate an entirely different meaning.

If you "run the gauntlet" you endure a trial or ordeal.

Here's an example:

Once the media understood the extent of Harry's dancing abilities, he and Mabel couldn't leave the house without running the gauntlet of paparazzi.

This gauntlet (and there is another) originally referred to a trial of a particularly awful variety.

It was a military punishment in which a prisoner was made to pass between two rows of men armed with (and using) clubs or other weapons.

The original name of the punishment in English was gantlope, from the Swedish gatlopp (from gata, meaning "road," and lop, meaning "course").

Gantlope was a bit funny-soundingto the English ear, though, and through a process called "folk etymology" gantlope morphed into the already-familiar gauntlet. (Note that gantlet is a centuries-old spelling variant of gauntlet.

You can use "run the gantlet" if you like, but it is significantly less common.)

By the time gantlope had become gauntlet, the earlier sense of gauntlet had been part of the language for about 200 years. It referred first to a protective glove worn with medieval armor, and then to other kinds of protective gloves, and eventually to gloves worn for dressy occasions. (It comes from the Middle French word gantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove.") Medieval custom took those protective gloves pretty seriously: to "throw down the gauntlet" was to issue a challenge; to "pick up the gauntlet" was to accept one. Those phrases(which can very occasionally be found with the gantlet spelling as well) are used metaphorically still:

Here concludes the story of gambit, gamut, and gauntlet.

Now go forth, and be inspired by Mabel and Harry: in a gambit to interest your readers, pick up the gauntlet and show the full gamut of your lexical skills. Use these words well. And if you can do it while dancing, better yet.

Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression

gantlet -gauntlet – gamut

One may run a gantlet (a former kind of military punishment).

One may also run a gamut(a series of musical notes or the whole range of anything). But one may not run a gauntlet, because it is a kind of glove.

“To take up a gauntlet” (“to accept a challenge”) and “to throw down the gauntlet” (to challenge to combat”) are correct but hackneyed expressions.

Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary

To “run a gamut” is to go through the whole scale or spectrum of something.

To “run the gauntlet” (also gantlet) is to run between two lines of people who are trying to beat you.

And don’t confuse “gamut” with “gambit,” a play in chess,

and by extension, a tricky maneuver of any kind.