gelt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɛlt/
rhymes: -ɛlt
Forms: form: gelts
Etymology: In the basic sense of "money", attested since the early 16th century, initially from (an Early New High German continuation of) Middle High German gelt (modern German Geld), from Old High German gelt (“payment, money”), or in some cases from (an Early Modern Dutch continuation of) Middle Dutch gelt. Later, and in the Jewish-related senses, from Yiddish געלט (gelt). The German, Dutch and Yiddish words are all from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”). Doublet of native words geld and yield.
Senses: examples: text: That nothynge had / There of theyr awne / Neyther gelt nor pawne.
ref: c. 1529, John Skelton, The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng, section 610:
text: It amounts to not above 12000 Fr. Rhenish, yearly, in bare gelt.
ref: 1591 (1685), Henry Wotton, in Reliquiae Wottonianae, 616
text: The is no Gelt to be got.
ref: c. 1698, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew:
text: I saw him at the house of my parents; I in my earliest youth, he approaching to fourscore. He was on his way to collect the Dominie's gelt; for the Dutch always took care the stipend to the minister should be competent, that so he never might be straitened 'to desire a gift.'
ref: 1816, Egbert Benson, in a memoir read before the New York Historical Society [in 1816], quoted in History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church (1883), page 22
text: "And yet," said Captain Dalgetty, "my second and greatest difficulty remains behind; for, although I hold it a mean and sordid thing for a soldado to have nothing in his mouth but pay and gelt, like the base cullions, the German lanz-knechts, whom I mentioned before; […] yet, ex contrario, a soldier's pay being the counterpart of his engagement of service, it becomes a wise and considerate cavalier to consider what remuneration he is to receive for his service, […]
ref: 1852, Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose And, The Black Dwarf:
text: Have bought some farm land in Rio Grande Valley which should bring in a sizeable bundle of gelts come cotton picking time.
ref: 1948, William Burroughs, letter, 5 Jun 1948
text: The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!
ref: 1969, Robert L. Vann, The Competitor, volumes 2-3, page 135:
qualifier: especially thieves' cant and Polari; later Judaism and general slang; especially thieves' cant and Polari; later Judaism and general slang
glosses: Money.
examples: text: All these the king granted unto them […] free from all gelts [guilds] and payments, in a most full and ample manner.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey:
glosses: Tribute; tax.
glosses: Money, especially that given as a gift on Hanukkah or used in games of dreidel.
glosses: Chocolate candy in the shape of coins, usually wrapped in metallic foil, usually eaten on Hanukkah and often used for games of dreidel.
Derived terms: sense: thieves' cant
english: new money
translation: new money
word: rum-gelt
sense: thieves' cant
english: bribe
translation: bribe
word: smear-gelt