Middle English Dictionary Entry

gāte n.(1)
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Entry Info

Forms gāte n.(1) Also gat, geat, giate, ghat, ghet, (error) cate & ȝat(e, ȝatte, ȝæt(e, ȝeate, ȝet(e, ȝhate, yat(e, yatte, yeate, yet(e, yette, yhate, iet(e. Pl. gates, etc. & (early) gaten, giaten, ȝaten, ȝæten, ȝeten & ȝeate, ȝeade.
Etymology WS geat, pl. gatu & Merc. get, pl. geatu & Nhb. gæt, geat, pl. gætt. The OE use of palatal g in the sg., velar g in the pl., breaks down completely in ME.

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) A gateway; a gate of a city, castle, house, etc.; also, a doorway; flod ~, a floodgate; (b) the movable barrier which closes off a gateway; one of the valves of a double gate; ?a portcullis [quot.: TC]; fig. a means of stopping idle chatter.
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2.
In phrases: (a) openen ~, putten open ~, undon (unbarren, unclosen, unpinnen, unshitten, unsperren, untinen, unyarken) ~, to open a gate or gates, raise or unlock a gate; breiden (casten, don, taken, weven) up ~, raise a gate or gates, raise a portcullis; (b) barren (closen, clusen, luken, maken, maken fast, shitten, sperren, steken, tinen) ~, to shut a gate or gates, lock, or bar gate(s; (c) biloken (geten, kepen, loken, yemen) ~, to guard a gate or gates, watch the gate(s; (d) welden the gates of, to conquer (sb.), rule over; (e) driven until the ~, to drive (sb.) to desperate measures; (f) at (the) ~, at one's door, imminent, oppressively near; when deth (the wain) is at the ~, when one is about to die; haven dame at the ~, proverbial expression of obscure meaning; (g) withouten the gate(s, outside the gate(s, abroad, outside a walled city; withinnen on ~, in one dwelling.
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3.
Fig. (a) A means by which Christ, the Devil, virtue, sin, etc., enter the soul; a means of entering or attaining (a state or condition), a means of achieving (an action); (b) gate(s of deth, the gate(s of death, the verge of death; also, the entrance to damnation; ~ of lif, salvation, entrance into (eternal) life; also, the Virgin Mary; (c) ~ of heven, heven(es ~, hevenriches ~, the gate(s of heaven (in a literal sense); spiritual blessing, salvation, eternal life; also, the Virgin Mary, the Church; ~ of helle, helle ~, the gate(s of Hell or of the pagan Hades; wickedness, sin, damnation, power of the Devil.
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4.
(a) Access to an area; capsi ~, gates of caspi, a pass in the mountains near the southern end of the Caspian Sea; (b) the beginning or end of a period of time; (c) one of the cardinal directions [cp. L cardo]; (d) anat. an opening into a bodily organ, an inlet or outlet; ~ of the liver, etc.
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5.
Gate of the city as a place of assembly.
Show 3 Quotations
6.
(a) Cpds. & Cmbs.: ~ essel, the bolt or bar of a gate; ~ lef, part of a gate that swings on hinges; ~ maker, a maker or builder of gates; ~ stapel, a gatepost; ~ tre, ?a gatepost, ?the upper beam of the frame to which a gate is attached; (b) ~ hous, a house or lodge built over or beside a gate; (c) ~ man, ~ ward, a gatekeeper; also fig.; also as surname; (d) in surnames, names of specific gates, place names. [In place names, gate may mean 'gate' in the ordinary sense, a gap in a wall or fence, a gap in a chain of hills or cliffs, a sluice gate, etc.; see Smith PNElem. 1.198, 248, 252. See also lid ~.]
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Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • ?a1400(a1338) Mannyng Chron.Pt.2 (Petyt 511)p.291 : The kyng spak for his prow..'I am castelle for ȝow, toure, hous, & rescette, & ȝe als naked berd loken in pauilloun þat to fight is ferd or ȝate þat first is doun.'
    • Note: Additional quote(s)
  • (a1382) WBible(1) Pref.Jer.(Bod 959)7.87 : Sophonyas..heriþ a crye from þe ȝate of fyschez.
    • Note: New phrase
    Note: 'ȝate of fyschez' = one of the gates of Jersusalem

Supplemental Materials (draft)

Note: Med., etc., see further J.Norri, Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary, s.v. gate.

Supplemental Materials (draft)

Note: Med., etc. (sense 4.(d)), see further J.Norri, Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary, s.v. gate of the liver.

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • c1465(?1373) Lelamour Macer (Sln 5)116/23 (f.13rb) : Annys .. he so etyth hit ofte, hit perith þe sight and stoppyth þe yate of the engendir.
    • Note: See the example from Lelamour Macer quoted under sense 3. The Latin (Macer 409-410) reads: 'Assidue bibitum .. genitale claudit iter, siccans humorem seminis intus.' This makes it clear that 'yate' (i.e. the northern form of ME gate n.(1) 'gate, portal, opening, means of ingress and egress') in Sloane 5 represents a false dialectal translation from 'gate' (i.e. ME gate n.(2) 'passageway'), since the latter is a straightforward rendering of the Latin 'iter.' The original Latin is itself, however, a bit cryptic: the herb is said to 'close off the genital passageway, drying up the humor of the seed within,' but whether this refers to the male or female procreative channel is not clear. The version in Sloane 5, taken on its own terms, is not altogether clear either; if interpreted literally it appears to say that the herb 'impedes the egress of the foetus' (which appears to be how Moreno-Olalla interprets it); MED has taken it figuratively but rather strainedly to mean that the herb 'hinders successful procreation.' Other options require some reinterpretations of 'engendir' as either an abstract (= engendure) or a physical parent (= engendrour); combined with the anatomical sense 4.(d) this leads to translations such 'stops up the procreative opening'; or 'stops up the parent's opening.' Parallel versions in the 'northern Macer' raise their own issues. The two northern dialect texts, Wellcome and Bodley Additional, both have 'gat-', and therefore presumably belong under gate n.(2), q.v. The version in the Pepys MS has ȝat-, is ambiguous, and has been grouped with the gat- examples.

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