guild
pronunciation
How to pronounce guild in British English:
UK [ɡɪld]
How to pronounce guild in American English:
US [ɡɪld]
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- Noun:
- a formal association of people with similar interests
Word Origin
- guild
- guild: [14] Guilds probably got their name from the subscriptions paid by their members. It goes back to a Germanic *gelth- ‘pay’, which also produced German and Dutch geld ‘money’. An association to which people contributed in order to further a common effort was a *gelthjōn, which probably passed into English via Middle Low German or Middle Dutch gilde. English yield is a relative; it originally meant ‘pay’.=> yield
- guild (n.)
- also gild, early 13c., yilde (spelling later influenced by Old Norse gildi "guild, brotherhood"), a semantic fusion of Old English gegield "guild, brotherhood," and gield "service, offering; payment, tribute; compensation," from Proto-Germanic *geldjam "payment, contribution" (cognates: Old Frisian geld "money," Old Saxon geld "payment, sacrifice, reward," Old High German gelt "payment, tribute;" see yield (v.)). The connecting sense is of a contribution or payment to join a protective or trade society. But some look to the alternative prehistoric sense of "sacrifice," as if in worship, and see the word as meaning a combination for religious purposes, either Christian or pagan. The Anglo-Saxon guilds had a strong religious component; they were burial societies that paid for Masses for the souls of deceased members as well as paying fines in cases of justified crime. Continental guilds of merchants, incorporated in each town or city and holding exclusive rights of doing business there, arrived after the Conquest. In many cases they became the governing body of a town (compare Guildhall, which came to be the London city hall). Trade guilds arose 14c., as craftsmen united to protect their common interest.
Example
- 1. Tom hooper 's film was also feted at the directors guild awards this weekend .
- 2. There is no guild of entrepreneurs , and no protective body that sets exams and standards .
- 3. The figure model 's guild declares modelling to be " an art form in itself " .
- 4. And I 'll talk principally from the perspective of both the lawyer and author and president of the authors guild .
- 5. Recently , as boog himself reported on galleycat , the writers guild east of america joined the occupy wall street march on behalf of its members .