Word Confusion: Gild vs Gilt vs Guilt

Posted May 22, 2017 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
6 July 2023

No one should have a problem with gild/gilt versus guilt — a trio of heterographs, HOWEVER, the difference between gild and gilt is very fine.

Both words relate to making something/one more “beautiful”, but to gild is the action that results in the gilt. And yes, there are instances in which one can be the other, relying primarily on the historical time period. You’re probably safe in any confusing with gild and gilt, but don’t make the mistake I ran across when the “the gilt of the man was too obvious to see”, ’cause I know the author wasn’t talkin’ about the James Bond scene in which the girl is covered in gold paint!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Gild Gilt Guilt

Applying gold leaf

Goldleaf by Juangonzalez64 at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons) is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The action of gilding a picture frame.


Silver-gilt ladle from the Hoxne Hoard in the British Museum showing use of Christian symbol.

Hoxne Hoard Ladle by under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Silver gilt ladle from a Roman archeological dig.


World War II poster

Guilty Of Mishandling Tools. Good Tools Deserve Good Care by Packer, a poster artist, (NARA record: 8467744) is with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Oh . . . the guilt of it all . . .

Part of Grammar:
Noun 1; Verb, transitive 2

Plural for the noun: gilds
Gerund: gilding

Third person present verb: gilds

Past tense or past participle: gilded, gilt
Present participle: gilding

Adjective 1; Noun 1 and 2

Plural for the noun: gilts

Noun; Verb, transitive

Plural for noun [slang]: guilts

Third person present verb: guilts

Past tense or past participle: guilted
Present participle: guilting

to cover in gold


Noun:
[Archaic] Guild 1

  • A medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power
  • An association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal

Verb, transitive:
Cover thinly with or as if with gold 2

  • To cover with gold leaf
  • Give a specious or false brilliance to

To unnecessarily adorn something already beautiful

  • To praise someone inordinately

To give a falsely attractive or valuable appearance to

[Archaic] To smear with blood

To make appear drunk

gold-plated


Adjective:
Covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint 1

Noun:
Gold leaf or gold paint in a thin layer on a surface 1

  • Gilding

[Slang] Money

[Finance] A security issued by the Bank of England

A young sow at, or nearing, the first year of breeding 2

did wrong


Noun:
The fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime

  • A feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation

Conduct involving the commission of such crimes, wrongs, etc.

Verb, transitive:
[Informal; often followed by out or into] To cause to feel guilty

Make someone feel guilty, especially in order to induce them to do something

Examples:
Noun:
The universities at Bologna, Oxford, and Paris evolved from a gild of students or masters.

In the Middle Ages, craftsmen gathered together into gilds to protect their secrets.

Verb, transitive:
“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily; to throw perfume on the violet, . . . is wasteful, and ridiculous excess” (Shakespeare, vi. ii. 11).

They gild the facts until the truth all but vanishes.

In 1436, he gilded and painted statues for Bruges Town Hall.

Adjective:
He fetched out a couple of cigars, everlasting big ones, with gilt bands on them.

She wore gilt-edged glasses.

It was a beautiful gilt brooch.

He’s guaranteeing it with gilt-edged bonds.

Noun:
“The king, cast in lead and covered in gold gilt, sat on a horse and wore a Roman toga and a crown of laurels” (Woodard).
It was a tiny vase covered with gilt.

“The gilt on the red ground of the holy picture-stand, and the gilt relief on the pictures, and the silver of the lusters and candlesticks, and the stones of the floor, and the rugs, and the banners above in the choir, and the steps of the altar, and the old blackened books, and the cassocks and surplices — all were flooded with light” (Tolstoy part 5, chapt 3).

Noun:
It is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt.

He remembered with sudden guilt the letter from his mother that he had not yet read.

Did Johnny admit to his guilt?

I have such guilt about some of the things I did as a child.

Paul has lived a life of guilt.

Verb, transitive:
She totally guilted me out, dude.

He guilted me into picking up the tab.

Celeste had been guilted into going by her parents.

Derivatives:
Adjective: gildable, gilded, gilding
Noun: gilder, gilding, gildsman
Adjective: gilt-edged, giltwood
Noun: gilding
Adjective: guilt-free, guilt-ridden, guiltless, guilty, guiltier, guiltiest
Adverb: guilt-free, guiltily, guiltlessly
Noun: guilt-trip, guiltiness, guiltlessness, nonguilt, preguilt
Verb: guilt trip, guilt-tripped, guilt-tripping
History of the Word:
  1. Late Old English and probably from the Middle Low German and the Middle Dutch gilde and is of Germanic origin.
  2. Old English gyldan is of Germanic origin and related to gold.
  1. Middle English is an archaic past participle of gild.
  2. Middle English from the Old Norse gyltr.
Old English gylt is of unknown origin.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Gild vs Gilt vs Guilt

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Shakespeare, William. King John. Start Publishing LLC, 2013. <https://amzn.to/3UXGtAt>. Ebook.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Dover Publication, 2012. <https://amzn.to/3Evt1gr>. Ebook.

Woodard, Carl. “Why Knocking Down Statues is a Tradition Around the World.” The Washington Post. 5 Nov 2012. Web. 22 Nov 2022. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-knocking-down-statues-is-a-tradition-around-the-world/2021/11/03/7801b332-1188-11ec-882f-2dd15a067dc4_story.html>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Pink and Black Pig and Angel Figure are via Pxfuel. Shy Boy by giusy64 is via Creazilla. All three are in the public domain.

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