gan

gan

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Gan.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Gan terms

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡæn/
• (Standard Southern British, Northern England, Scotland, Wales) IPA^(key): /ɡan/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æn

Probably a variant of gang, from Middle English gangen, from Old English gangan (“to step; walk; go”).

• gang

gan (third-person singular simple present gans, present participle gawn or gannin, simple past went, past participle gane)

1. (Northumbria, North Yorkshire) To go.
   • 2011, Chris Dockerty, Ramblings of a Geordie:

     The one problem I had here was my broad Geordie accent which the teachers tried their hardest to make me lose. I couldn't understand their problem with it because I could understand myself. Whenever I told them, "Am gannin yem", they would say, "No, Christopher. It's not "am gannin yem", it's "I am going home".

gan

1. (archaic) simple past of gin

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “GAN”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin, “gan”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[2], archived from the original on 5 September 2024.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[3]
• “Gan”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[4], archived from the original on 5 September 2024, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “gan”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.

• AGN, ANG, GNA, NGA, nag

From French gant.

gan

1. glove

• IPA^(key): [ɡã˦]

gan

1. to jump

gan

1. hot

gan

1. (transitive) to heat up

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• IPA^(key): /ŋan/

gan

1. reptile
2. (specifically) goanna

   Synonym: wirriga

• Troy, Jakelin (2019) [1994], “gan”, in The Sydney Language‎^[5], 2nd edition, Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press, →ISBN, page 45

Borrowed from Bengali গান (gan).

gan

1. song

From French gant (“glove”).

gan

1. glove

• Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael (1993), Haitian Creole-English Dictionary‎^[6], Dunwoody Press, →ISBN, page 73

From Old Irish cen (“besides; without”),^[1] from Proto-Celtic *kina (“on this side of”); compare Middle Welsh am-gen (“otherwise”), Breton ken (“otherwise”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡən̪ˠ/, /ɡənˠ/^[2][3]
• (Munster, also) IPA^(key): /ɡɑn̪ˠ/^[4]
• (Aran, also) IPA^(key): /ɡɑn/, /ɡɔn/^[2]

gan (plus nominative, triggers no mutation in specific references but lenition in general references)

1. without
2. not (in conjunction with a verbal noun)

• In standard written Irish, triggers lenition (except of d, s, t) of unmodified nouns, e.g. gan phingin (“without a penny”). Does not trigger lenition of modified nouns, e.g. gan pingin ina phóca (“without a penny in his pocket”). In the meaning ‘not’, does not trigger lenition of either a verbal noun or on the direct object of the verbal noun, e.g. gan ceannach (“not to buy”), gan pingin a shaothrú (“not to earn a penny”).
• Unlike most prepositions, gan takes the nominative case of nouns, as shown by the lack of mutation of consonant-initial masculine singular nouns after the definite article, for example gan an plúr (“without the flour”), and the presence of t-prothesis of vowel-initial masculine singular nouns after the article, for example gan an t-airgead (“without the money”).
• Unlike most prepositions, gan does not form prepositional pronouns, but is instead followed by the disjunctive form of a personal pronoun, for example gan mé (“without me”), gan sinn (“without us”), gan é (“without him”).

• 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 127:

  ȷ imə šē leš gon ēn ńī ēkāl.

  [D’imigh sé leis gan aon ní a fheiceáil.]

  He left without seeing anything.

• 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 127:

  l̄aurofŭī n̥ ʒēlǵə fōs əŕ fȧ nə ciŕə, ʒā mĭøx gn̥ n̄āŕə ə ve orī fuhə.

  [Labhrófaí an Ghaeilge fós ar feadh na tíre dhá mbeadh gan náire a bheith oraibh fúithi.]

  Irish would still be spoken in the whole country if you pl were not ashamed of it.

• 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 128:

  hāniǵ šē ʒā rā, n̄ax mĭai šə sə mŭȧlə ən̄óxt agəs gon kūrm̥ ə ʒlakə fȳ.

  [Tháinig sé dhá rá nach mbeidh sé sa mbaile anocht agus gan cúram a ghlacadh faoi.]

  He came to say he won’t be home tonight and not to worry about him.

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “gan”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “gan”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “gan”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

gan

1. Rōmaji transcription of がん
2. Rōmaji transcription of ガン

gan

1. tattoo

• André-Georges Haudricourt et Françoise Ozanne-Rivière, Dictionnaire thématique des langues de la région de Hienghène (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : pije - fwâi - nemi - jawe, Lacito - Documents, Asie-Austronésie 4, SELAF no. 212, Peeters, 1982

gan

1. both, and

Used in pairs: gan jauna, gan skaista "both young and beautiful"

gan

1. alternative form of gahn (“to go”)

gan

1. nonstandard spelling of gān
2. nonstandard spelling of gǎn
3. nonstandard spelling of gàn

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

gan

1. alternative form of gain (“against”)

gan

1. (Early Middle English, Northern) alternative form of gon (“to go”)

gan

1. alternative form of gon (“gone”)

• gēn, kēn

Inherited from Old High German gān, gēn, from Proto-West Germanic *gān. The past tense forms with -ng- are suppleted from a merger with Old High German gangan.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈɡaːn/

gān (irregular, third-person singular present gāt, past tense gienc, past participle gegān or gegangen, past subjunctive gienge, auxiliary sīn)

1. to go

• Alemannic German: gaa, gan, ge, gi, goo, gu

  Swabian: gau, geha

• Bavarian: geh, gea, gean, gian

  Cimbrian: gian, ghéenan (Sette Comuni)

  Northern Bavarian: [ɡ̊ɛi]

• Central Franconian: giehn, gohn (northeastern Moselle Franconian), john, jonn (Ripuarian)

  Hunsrik: gehn, keen

  Luxembourgish: goen

• East Central German: gii, giin (Erzgebirgisch)

  Upper Saxon German:

  Vilamovian: gejn

• East Franconian:
• German: gehen
• Rhine Franconian: geh, gehe, gäh, gähe, gäj, gäje, gih, gihe, gej, geje

  Frankfurterisch: [g̥ε̃ː]

  Pennsylvania German: geh

• Yiddish: גיין (geyn)

From Old Saxon gān.

Related to Old High German gān (“to go”), Old English gān (“to go”), Old Norse ganga (“to go”), Dutch gaan (“to go”), German gehen (“to go”), English go.

gān

1. to go
2. to walk
3. to travel, to proceed

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Low German: gahn

  German Low German: gahn

  Dutch Low Saxon: goan

• August Lübben and Christoph Walther, Mittelniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch, Norden/Leipzig: Diedr. Soltau’s Verlag, 1888, s.v. “gân”.

From Proto-Vietic *t-kaːn, from Old Chinese 肝 (OC *s.kˤa[r]).

gan

1. (anatomy) liver

• Vietnamese: gan

• Alexandre de Rhodes (1651), “gan”, in Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (in Middle Vietnamese, Latin, and Portuguese), Rome: Propaganda Fide

• IPA^(key): /ɡan/

Fossilized soft mutation form of can, from Old Welsh cant, from Proto-Brythonic *gant, from Proto-Celtic *kanta, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥-ti-, from *ḱóm (“with”). Cognate with Breton gant and Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “against; downwards”).

gan (triggers soft mutation)

1. with
2. by

Used with bot (“to be”) to express possession, corresponding to English have:

• Kerdet araf, guastat oed gan y march.

  The horse had a slow, even pace.

• y gan

• Welsh: gan

• Evans, D. Simon (1964), A Grammar of Middle Welsh (Medieval and Modern Welsh Series; supplementary volume), Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 63, 208, pages 60, 190–91
• Morris Jones, John (1913), A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative, Oxford: Clarendon Press, § 211 ii, pages 405–6

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gan

1. soft mutation of can

Cognate with Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish گان (gan), Gurani گای (gai), Zazaki gaene, gainaene, Persian گاییدن, Middle Persian [Term?] (/⁠gādan⁠/).

In some dialects it's the animal equivalent of tê niyan (“to fuck; lit. "to put in, insert"”) or a meaner way of saying "fuck" by insinuating the person cursed at is an animal. That considered, the actual sense may have been "to breed" and derived from ga (“ox; bull; stud; any male cattle”).

In some dialects and derived terms it's used only for homosexual acts or prostitution.

gan (present stem -gê-)

1. to fuck, to breed, to have sexual intercourse, to copulate

• tev gan ("fuck up")
• xwe gê ("fuck yourself, fuck off")
• xwe gan bi paş va ("back the fuck off")

gan f

1. sex

• gan dan ("to whore oneself", lit. "to give sex")
• gander ("whore" lit. "sex-giver")
• ganganok ("sodomite")
• ganewî ("sexy")
• gan kirin ("to have sex")

• IPA^(key): /ɡã̄/

gan

1. to exceed; to surpass

   Èmì mi li gan èmì u. ― My house is cleaner than her house.

   U ge gan kpáátá. ― It's the best. (literally, “It is good surpassing all”)

   Gànsìkiya ligwa gankò. ― The truth washes the hands more than soap.

Used to construct the comparative and superlative.

• gangan (“to be too much”)
• ganganyí (“very much”)

From Proto-West Germanic *gān.

gān

1. to go

• anagān
• antgān
• bigān
• fargān
• ūtgān

• Middle Dutch: gâen
  • Dutch: gaan
    • Afrikaans: gaan
    • Javindo: ha, haat
    • Jersey Dutch: xân, xâne
    • Petjo: gaan, haan
  • Limburgish: gaon, goëne

• “gān”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

From Proto-West Germanic *gān, from Proto-Germanic *gāną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”). The verb was defective in Germanic and may have existed only in the present tense.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑːn/
• Rhymes: -ɑːn

gān

1. to go
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, "Gospel of Saint John", chapter 21, verse 3

     Ðā cwæð Simon Petrus tō him, Ic wylle gān on fixað. Þā cwǣdon hī tō him, And wē wyllað gān mid þē. And hī ēodon ūt, and ēodon on scip, and ne fēngon nān þing on þǣre nihte.

     Then said Simon Peter to them, "I want to go fishing." Then they said to him, "and we want to go with you." And they went out and went in a ship, and caught nothing in the night.

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "The Seven Sleepers"

     ...hē wolde gān ūt of ðām porte...

     ...he desired to go out of the town...

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Chair of Saint Peter"

     ...swā hwǣr swā hē ēode and hī ealle āstōdon ansunde ætforan him þe on ðām fænne ǣr lagon.

     ...wheresoever he went, and they all rose up sound before him, who aforetime lay in the mire.

2. to walk
   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Chair of Saint Peter"

     ...and hē lēop sona cunniġende his fēðes hwæðer hē cūðe gān.

     and he leapt up immediately, trying his power of motion, whether he could walk.

   • late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History

     Sē wer meahte unēaðe þurh hine selfne ārīsan oþþe gān.

     The man could barely get up or walk by himself.

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 6:66

     Siþþan maniġe his leornungcneohta ċierdon onbæc and lenġ ne ēodon mid him.

     After that, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

3. to enter
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Matthew 24:38-39

     On þǣm dagum ǣr þǣm flōde wǣron menn etende and drincende, and wīfiġende and ġifte sellende, ōþ þone dæġ þe Nōe on þā earċe ēode, and hīe nysson ǣr sē flōd cōm and nam hīe ealle.

     In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they didn't know until the flood came and took them all.

• The expected present participle, gānde, is very rare. Instead gangende is almost always used, from the synonym gangan: Līf nis būtan gangendu sċadu ("Life is but a walking shadow").

• gangan

• gang

• Middle English: gon, goo, goon, go, gan, ga (Northern), geen (pseudo-Northern)
  • English: go
  • Geordie: gan
  • Middle Scots: go, goe, gone
    • Scots: gan, gae, gang, ging, gyang
  • Yola: goe, go, gow

From Proto-West Germanic *gān.

gān

1. to go

• Saterland Frisian: geen (simple past, past participle of gunge)
• West Frisian: gean

• gēn — see there for more

From Proto-West Germanic *gān.

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːn/

gān

1. to go

• The ā-form was found especially in Alemannic and in western Franconian. In the former, the vocalism was regularized early on (du gās, er gāt); in the latter, the West Germanic vowel alternation (du geis, he geit) has been preserved even to this day.

• Middle High German: gān
  • Alemannic German: go, gon
  • Central Franconian: jonn, john, gohn

• stān

From Proto-West Germanic *gān.

gān

1. to go

• Middle Low German: gân
  • Low German: gahn
    • Dutch Low Saxon: gan, gaan, gaon
    • German Low German: gahn
  • Plautdietsch: gonen

• gae, gang, ging, gyang

From Northern Middle English gan, from Old English gān (“to go”). Past tense supplied by Old English wenden (“to wend”).

gan (third-person singular simple present gans, present participle gan, simple past went or wett, past participle been)

1. to go

Contraction of aig (“at”) +‎ an (“their”)

• (Lewis, Wester Ross) IPA^(key): /ɣa(n)/^[1][2][3]
• (Southern Hebridean, Skye) IPA^(key): /ɡ̊a(n)/^[4][5]
• (South Argyll) IPA^(key): /ɡ̊ɑ(n)/^[6]

gan (+ dative, triggers eclipsis of a vowel)

1. them (direct object)

   A bheil sibh gan creidsinn? ― Do you believe them?

• Before words beginning with b, f, m or p gam is used instead.

gan

1. romanization of 𒃶 (gan)

From older gani.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡan]

gan

1. alternative form of gani (“louse”)

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh

From English gun.

gan

1. gun

• Volker, C. A. (general editor), et al. (2008), Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin English Dictionary, Oxford University Press in association with Wantok Niuspepa, →ISBN, page 19

Other scripts
Latin	gan
Cyrillic	ган
Arabic	قان

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *kān (“blood”). Cognate with Turkish kan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɣɑːn/, [ˈɢɑ̝ːn]

gan (definite accusative gany, plural ganlar)

1. blood

• “gan” in Enedilim.com
• “gan” in Webonary.org

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ɣaːn˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ɣaːŋ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ɣaːŋ˧˧]

• Audio (Saigon):

  (file)

Inherited from Proto-Vietic *t-kaːn, derived from Old Chinese 肝 (OC *s.kˤa[r]) (SV: can). Cognate with Chut [Rục] təkaːn¹ ("bold").

Attested as gan in the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (1651).

Displaced native lòm, now only found in the compounds đỏ lòm and chua lòm.

gan • (肝, 𭆺) (classifier lá, cái)

1. (anatomy) liver
2. (figurative) audacity; gall; balls

   to gan ― audacious

   nhát gan/gan thỏ đế ― chicken

gan • (肝, 𭆺)

1. hepatic
2. courageous, brave, tough

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

gan (classifier cây)

1. Malus doumeri

   Synonym: sơn tra

• nga, Nga

• IPA^(key): [ɡan]

gan (genitive gana, plural gans)

1. (male or female) goose

• böd
• nim

• ganil

• barnig (“brant goose, brent goose”), Branta bernicla

From Middle Welsh gan, can, from Old Welsh cant, from Proto-Brythonic *gant, from Proto-Celtic *kanta.^[1] Cognate with Breton gant and Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “against; downwards”).

• (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ɡan/
  • (North Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ɡɪn/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ɡan/
• Rhymes: -an

gan (triggers soft mutation)

1. (North Wales) used with bod to indicate possession

   Synonym: gyda

   Mae gen i wallt hir.

   I have long hair.

   (literally, “Long hair is with me.”)

2. by (after a passive construction)

   Cafodd y car ei ddwyn gan ddau llanc.

   The car was stolen by two youths.

3. by, from (authorship)

   Dw i wedi cael tecst gan dad yn dweud sori.

   I have got a text from dad saying sorry.

4. used with verbal noun to indicate an action simultaneous with that of the main verb, while, whilst
   • King, Gareth (1993), Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars), London and New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 131:

     Aeth o gwmpas y stafell gan ofyn yr un cwestiwn i bawb.

     He went around the room [while] asking everyone the same question.

See gan on Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru for more information.

• IPA^(key): /ɡan/
• Rhymes: -an

gan

1. soft mutation of can

gan

1. soft mutation of can

• Audio:

  (file)

gan (definite form gan gi)

1. stranger
2. guest

• gẹ̀n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã̀/

gàn

1. (transitive) to disparage, criticize, belittle

   Synonyms: pẹ̀gàn, ṣáátá, ṣàbùkù, kẹ́gàn

   ọ̀tá mí gàn mí ― my enemy disparages me

• gan before a direct object

• lámèyítọ́ (“critic”)

• gẹn (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã̄/

gan

1. (intransitive) to become stiff, to harden

   kankéré ti gan ― The concrete has hardened

• Aganjú (“orisha of the wilderness”)
• ìgan
• agan

• gẹ́n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã́/

gán

1. (transitive) to stub, to clear (plants or a forest)

   Synonym: ṣán

   àgbẹ́ gán' igbó ― The farmer cleared the forest

• gẹ́n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã́/

gán

1. to use something very sparingly

   Synonym: sún

   mo ń gán owó lò ― I am using money very sparingly

• gẹ́n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã́/

gán

1. to hit something with a thrown or spun object

   mo ń gán owó lò ― I am using money very sparingly

• gẹ́n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã́/

gán

1. to tack or stich something together

   Synonym: rán

   mo gán etí aṣọ pọ̀ ― I hemmed the edge of the cloth together

• gbá (“to stich together the edges of a mat”)

• gẹ́n (Òǹkò)

• IPA^(key): /ɡã́/

gán

1. to snatch something in the air, especially with one hand

   Synonyms: hán, wọ́n

   mo fọwọ́ gán bọ́ọ̀lù náà pákó ― I used my hand to snatch the ball swiftly from the air