guerdon

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈɡɝdən/ UK /ˈɡɜːdən/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a reward or recompense for service

The knight sought no guerdon beyond his lady's thanks.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a reward or recompense for... reward recompense requital payment prize desert

Opposites

penalty punishment

Etymology

From Old French guerdon, from Medieval Latin widerdonum, an alteration (influenced by Latin donum 'gift') of a Germanic compound, from Old High German widarlōn ('repayment'), from widar ('against, back') + lōn ('reward').

guerdon Old French widarlōn Old High German

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# guerdon

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈɡɝdən/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɡɜːdən/

## Meanings
1. a reward or recompense for service

## Examples
- The knight sought no guerdon beyond his lady's thanks.

## Synonyms
- reward
- recompense
- requital
- payment
- prize
- desert

## Antonyms
- penalty
- punishment

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: guerdon
- Root: widarlōn

## Etymology
From Old French guerdon, from Medieval Latin widerdonum, an alteration (influenced by Latin donum 'gift') of a Germanic compound, from Old High German widarlōn ('repayment'), from widar ('against, back') + lōn ('reward').

## AI Etymology
guerdon comes from Old French guerdon, from Medieval Latin widerdonum, an alteration (influenced by Latin donum 'gift') of a Germanic compound, from Old High German widarlōn ('repayment'), from widar ('against, back') + lōn ('reward'). Morphologically, the word is best read through the components named in the history, with the modern spelling preserving a compound structure rather than a single unanalyzable stem. In present English, the noun sense is "a reward or recompense for service", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. Its semantic neighborhood includes reward, recompense, requital, and payment, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old French guerdon and Old High German widarlōn.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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