guild

See also: Guild

English

Alternative forms

• gild (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English gilde, from Old Norse gildi (“payment, guild”). Related to geld, yield, yauld.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɪld/
• Rhymes: -ɪld
• Homophones: gild, gilled

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

guild (plural guilds)

1. A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of merchants, craftspeople, or artisans, particularly in the Middle Ages, established to oversee and protect their specific commercial interests and to provide mutual aid.
   • 2003, “Guild of Mute Assassins”, performed by Clutch:

     The swinging of its censers, the silence of its members / Oh, the Guild of Mute Assassins

2. A corporation.
3. (ecology) A group of diverse species that share common characteristics or habits.
4. (video games) An organized group of players who regularly play together in a multiplayer game.

Synonyms

• (medieval professional associations): Hanse (merchants)
• (modern professional associations): trade union, union, professional association

Derived terms

• altar guild
• extraguild
• frithguild
• guildable
• guildic
• guildie
• guildless
• guildlike
• guildmaster
• guildmate
• guildmember
• guildmistress
• guildship
• guildwide
• intraguild

Translations

association of tradespeople

• Armenian: գիլդիա (hy) (gildia), համքարություն (hy) (hamkʻarutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: еснаф (bg) m (esnaf), гилдия (bg) f (gildija)
• Catalan: corporació (ca), confraria (ca), ram (ca) m, gremi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 行會 / 行会 (zh) (hánghuì), 同業公會 / 同业公会 (zh) (tóngyè gōnghuì), 公會 / 公会 (zh) (gōnghuì)

• Czech: cech (cs) m
• Danish: lav (da) n, gilde n
• Dutch: gilde (nl) m or f or n
• Esperanto: gildo (eo)
• Finnish: kilta (fi)
• French: guilde (fr) f
• Galician: gremio m, confraría f
• German: Gilde (de) f, Zunft (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: συντεχνία f (suntekhnía)

• Hindi: संगठन (hi) m (saṅgṭhan), संगम (hi) m (saṅgam)
• Hungarian: céh (hu)
• Ido: gildo (io)
• Indonesian: gilda
• Irish: gild m (historical), cuallacht f
• Italian: gilda, fraglia f
• Japanese: ギルド (ja) (girudo), 公会 (ja) (kōkai), 行会 (yukiai, gyōkai, kōkai)
• Latin: collēgium n, gilda, ghilda, confrāternitās f
• Latvian: cunfte f, amats (lv) m
• Lithuanian: gildija
• Low German:

  German Low German: gill

• Macedonian: еснаф (esnaf), цех m (ceh)
• Malay: perseikatan
• Norwegian: laug
• Polish: gildia (pl), cech (pl)
• Portuguese: guilda (pt) f, grêmio (pt), confraria (pt)
• Russian: ги́льдия (ru) f (gílʹdija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: це̏х m

  Latin: cȅh (sh) m

• Slovene: ceh (sl)
• Spanish: germanía (es) f, gremio (es) m
• Swedish: skrå (sv) n, gille (sv) n
• Tagalog: gremyo
• Thai: สมาคมอาชีพ
• Turkish: esnaf (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: اصناف (esnâf), صنف (sınf, sınıf), لونجه (lonca)

• Vietnamese: phường hội (vi)
• Welsh: urdd f
• Zazaki: gome

See also

• (meeting place): guild hall, guildhall, guildsman, guildswoman, common house, common hall

Further reading

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Guild, gild”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume IV (F–G), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 493–494.
• Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009