geason

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English geson, gesene (rare, scarce), from Old English gǣsne (deprived of, wanting, destitute, barren, sterile, dead), from Proto-West Germanic *gaisnī (barren, poor), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰē- (to be gaping, yawn). Cognate with North Frisian gast (barren), Low German güst (barren), Old High German geisini, keisini (lack).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈɡiːzən/, /ˈɡeɪzən/, /ˈɡɛzən/

Adjective

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geason (comparative more geason, superlative most geason)

  1. (rare or dialectal) Rare; uncommon; scarce.
    • 16th century, Nicholas Udall, Falcon White:
      This white falcon rare and gaison,
      This bird shineth so bright.
    • 1588, George Puttenham, “Of Proportion”, in The Arte of English Poesie; republished as George Gregory Smith, editor, Elizabethan Critical Essays[1], volume 2, Oxford University Press, 1937, page 119:
      [] ye shal finde many other word to rime with him, bycause such terminations are not geazon []
    • 1591, Edmund Spenser, Visions of the Worlds Vanitie:
      Such as this Age, in which all good is geason, []
    • 1594, Thomas Lodge, The Wounds of Civil War, act 2; republished as John Payne Collier, Robert Dodsley, Isaac Reed, editors, A Select Collection of Old Plays, volume 8, London: Septimus Prowett, 1825, page 32:
      Lectorius, friends are geason now-a-days, / And grow to fume before they taste the fire.
  2. (UK dialectal) Difficult to procure; scant; sparing.
  3. (rare or dialectal) Unusual; wonderful.

Synonyms

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Anagrams

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