guerdon
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English guerdon, guerdoun, gardone, from Old French guerdon, guerredon, guarredon, werdon, from Medieval Latin widerdōnum, alteration of widerlōnum, from West Germanic (whence Old High German widarlōn, Old English wiþerlēan), literally ‘back-payment’, with the second element assimilated to Latin dōnum (“gift”).
Inflected forms:
form: guerdons
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: gerdon
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: guerdons
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: guerdoning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: guerdoned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: guerdoned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: gerdon
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A reward, prize or recompense for a service; an accolade.
pos: noun
tags: literary
examples: For would she of her gentlenesse,
Withouten more, me ones kesse,
It were to me a great guerdoon.
Release of all my passion […]
Is this the guerdon wherewithall ye quite my fruitfulnesse?
Is this the honor that ye gave for my plenteousnesse
And dutie done with true intent?
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies:
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies.
He hearkned, and did stay from further harmes,
To gayne so goodly guerdon, as she spake […]
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears,
And slits the thin-spun life.
Verse, like the laurel its immortal meed,
Should be the guerdon of a noble deed
"That will I do blithely," replied the Pilgrim, "and without guerdon; my oath, for a time, prohibits me from touching gold."
I had some faint recollection of having a penny-piece in my waistcoat pocket, and, pleased with the service he had rendered to us, I gave it him as his guerdon. "Thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir," he cried, and immediately returned to his station near the footway.
"Here, minstrel, drive bad thoughts away! Sing! Take
"My glove for guerdon!"
You treat me like a slave, and bid me bow to my master! Is this the guerdon of a free maiden—is this the price of a life’s passion?
I sang these things long since and knew them not;
"Lo, here is love, or there is love, God wot,
This man and that finds favour in his eyes,"
I said, "but I, what guerdon have I got?
Sons of honour, nobly fathered, scions of the sturdy brood,Who from age to age have gathered strength and duty in the blood,Strength to bear the distressed burden, duty which has cost them dear—Wounds for wage and death for guerdon—Lo! the final hour is here. […]
Melanie might have given him his new coat but this sash was her gift, her own secret guerdon for him to wear into battle, something that would make him remember her every time he looked at it.
gloss: To give such a reward to.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: And when thou see'st the Admiral ride by,
Discharge thy musket, and perform his death;
And then I'll guerdon thee with store of crowns.
[…] him we gave a costly bribe
To guerdon silence […]
Translations: