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guild - 4 dictionary results

guild

  [gild]
Use guild in a Sentence
–noun
1. an organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc., esp. one formed for mutual aid or protection.
2. any of various medieval associations, as of merchants or artisans, organized to maintain standards and to protect the interests of its members, and that sometimes constituted a local governing body.
3. Botany. a group of plants, as parasites, having a similar habit of growth and nutrition.
Also, gild.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME gild(e) < ON gildi guild, payment; r. OE gegyld guild; akin to G Geld money, Goth -gild tax
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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guild also gild   (gĭld)   
n.  
    1. An association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.
    2. A similar association, as of merchants or artisans, in medieval times.
  2. Ecology A group of diverse species, especially animal species, that occupy a common niche in a given community, characterized by exploitation of environmental resources in the same way.

[Middle English gild, from Old Norse gildi, payment, guild.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Guild

Guild\, n. [OE. gilds, AS. gild, gield, geld, tribute, a society or company where payment was made for its charge and support, fr. AS. gildan, gieldan, to pay. See Yield, v. t.]

1. An association of men belonging to the same class, or engaged in kindred pursuits, formed for mutual aid and protection; a business fraternity or corporation; as, the Stationers' Guild; the Ironmongers' Guild. They were originally licensed by the government, and endowed with special privileges and authority.

2. A guildhall. [Obs.] --Spenser.

3. A religious association or society, organized for charitable purposes or for assistance in parish work.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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guild 
c.1230, yilde (spelling later infl. by O.N. gildi), a semantic fusion of O.E. gegyld "guild" and gild, gyld "payment, tribute, compensation," from P.Gmc. *gelth- "pay" (cf. O.Fris. geld "money," O.S. geld "payment, sacrifice, reward," O.H.G. gelt "payment, tribute"). The connecting sense is of a tribute or payment to join a protective or trade society. But some see the root in its alternate 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. The continental custom of guilds of merchants arrived after the Conquest, with incorporated societies of merchants in each town or city holding exclusive rights of doing business there. In many cases they became the governing body of a town (cf. Guildhall, which came to be the London city hall). Trade guilds arose 14c., as craftsmen united to protect their common interest.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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