Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A reward; recompense.
- v. To reward.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A reward; requital; recompense.
- To give a guerdon to; reward.
Wiktionary
- n. A reward, prize or recompense for a service; an accolade.
- v. To give such a reward to.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A reward; requital; recompense; -- used in both a good and a bad sense.
- v. To give guerdon to; to reward; to be a recompense for.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a reward or payment
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin widerdōnum, alteration (influenced by Latin dōnum, gift) of Old High German widarlōn : widar, back, against; see wi- in Indo-European roots + lōn, reward; see lau- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The gods were wroth at so presumptuous an offer, but when they would have indignantly driven the stranger from their presence, Loki urged them to make a bargain which it would be impossible for the stranger to keep, and so they finally told the architect that the guerdon should be his, provided the fortress were finished in the course of a single winter, and that he accomplished the work with no other assistance than that of his horse Svadilfare.”
“The 13-year-old boy aced "guerdon" to win the 81st edition of the bee, held in the nation's capital.”
““Then dirt and weather-beat shall be your guerdon of honour,””
“Thanks to the school of scientific philosophers he favored, he knew the biological significance of love; but by a refined process of the same scientific reasoning he reached the conclusion that the human organism achieved its highest purpose in love, that love must not be questioned, but must be accepted as the highest guerdon of life.”
“The winning words in recent competitions have included: pococurante; autochthonous; appoggiatura; ursprache; serrefine; guerdon; Laodicean.”
“Lors des championnats les plus récents, les mots qui ont permis aux gagnants de remporter la victoire ont été pococurante, autochthonous, appoggiatura, ursprache, serrefine, guerdon et Laodicean.”
“Constructing new legislation is always difficult, but I propose a simple starting point for immigration selection: Anyone who can spell guerdon is in!”
“When Sameer Mishra correctly spelled guerdon last May to win the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee, he became the sixth Indian-American winner in the past 10 years.”
“People also gathered round this silver-and-nickel-alloy guerdon to meet its guardian: Mike Bolt.”
“Thus the Count and Countess had an opportunity to estimate the happiness and the felicity reserved for those slaves, whom the Omnipotent Jupiter, in the plenitude of compassion for their state, and in guerdon of their good morals, had dedicated to the service of a philosopher.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘guerdon’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
bilby "How could anyone look at the happiness of the Beverley sisters, dolled up for the palace, and propose to snatch their prize away? Why be so cruel, when they have sung so lustily and for so long, and so well deserved their tinny guerdon?"
- Boris Johnson, 'Elect the Lords -- and stop our gongs going for a song', Daily Telegraph, 29 March 2002. Nov 24, 2008
fio_smiles Origin:
"reward, recompense" (now only poetic), 1366, from Old French. guerdon, from Medieval Latin. widerdonum, from Old High German widarlon (reward);
From: http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php Jun 13, 2008
oroboros "Something one has earned or gained." The winning word for the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition. May 31, 2008