gage

See also Gage

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡeɪd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

Etymology 1

From Middle English gage, from later Old French or early Middle French gager (verb), (also guagier in Old French) gage (noun), ultimately from Frankish *waddi, from Germanic ( > English wed). Doublet of wage, from the same origin through an Old Northern French variant. Cf. also mortgage.

Verb

gage (third-person singular simple present gages, present participle gaging, simple past and past participle gaged)

1. (obsolete) To give or deposit as a pledge or security; to pawn
2. (archaic) To wager, to bet.

Translations

to measure — see gauge

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. Something, such as a glove or other pledge, thrown down as a challenge to combat (now usually figurative).
   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     “But it is enough that I challenge the trial by combat — there lies my gage.” She took her embroidered glove from her hand, and flung it down before the Grand Master with an air of mingled simplicity and dignity…

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 166:

     The gage was down for a duel that would split the Democratic party and ensure the election of a Republican president in 1860.

2. Alternative spelling of gauge. Used especially as a technical term of measuring devices and standard measures.
3. A form of jewelry which creates a hole of variable size in the earlobe, popular especially among some young people in the West, perhaps on analogy with similar devices found in various non-Western indigenous cultures.
4. (obsolete) Something valuable deposited as a guarantee or pledge; security, ransom.
   • Sandys

     Nor without gages to the needy lend.

Translations

challenge to combat

• Finnish: haaste (fi), taisteluhansikas (fi)

gauge — see gauge

Etymology 2

Verb

gage (third-person singular simple present gages, present participle gaging, simple past and past participle gaged)

1. Alternative spelling of gauge. To measure.

Etymology 3

Named after the Gage family of England, who imported the greengage from France.

Noun

gage (plural gages)

1. A variety of plum.

Derived terms

• blue gage
• frost gage
• golden gage
• greengage

Translations

greengage — see greengage

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French

Etymology

From Old French gage, gauge, guage, itself (possibly through a Vulgar Latin root *wadium) from Frankish *waddi (a Germanic legal term, cognate with Old English wedd). Compare English wage, ultimately of the same source through an Anglo-Norman/Old Northern French variant.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /ɡaʒ/
• Rhymes: -aʒ
• Homophones: gagent, gages

Noun

gage m (plural gages)

1. a pledge or security
2. a guarantee
3. proof, evidence

Related terms

• gager