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The answer we had in mind for this Wordplay is to run the gamut, but there is at least one other perfectly acceptable alternative, to run the gauntlet, which we also treated as correct when drawing the winning name; the same applied to the handful of entries for "run to ground." We explore the interesting etymologies of both run the gamut and run the gauntlet below.
To run the gamut means to experience the entire range of something. For example, one might run the gamut of emotions from anger to happiness. Gamut has its roots in music, and specifically in the hexatonic (six note) scale developed by medieval monk and musician, Guido of Arezzo in the 11th century. To quote Merriam Webster:
"Guido called the first line of his bass staff gamma and the first note in his scale ut, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, an entire range of any sort.
He used the syllables ut, re, mi, far, sol and la to designate his six note scale, and gamma to describe the lowest note of all on the medieval scale."
To run the gauntlet is something quite different. Its literal meaning is to be on the receiving end of physical punishment delivered by a number of people, but its modern day use is usually metaphorical, such as to pass through an intimidating crowd: "the accused ran the gauntlet of journalists on his way into the courtroom."
To run the gauntlet was to pass through a lane consisting of two rows of men armed with switches, cudgels or other weapons. Sometimes running the gauntlet was intended as a death sentence and sometimes it ended up as one even when not intended as such. Depending on the crime, different rules might apply such as no edged weapons, allowing the condemned to protect their head, or those administering the punishment having to stay in a stationary position. In the British military, a junior officer would often walk ahead of the condemned man to prevent him from running.
At first glance, you might assume the term derives from the chain mail glove known as a gauntlet, but actually, it is said to have its roots in the Swedish term gatlopp (gata "lane" and lopp "running"). Over time, the word that had been spelled in English as gantelope came to be pronounced as gauntlet (perhaps due to the similarity of the expression"; throwing down the gauntlet," meaning to issue a challenge), and eventually was also spelled that way.
The expression is said to have entered English during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a particularly devastating central European religious war which essentially boiled down to Protestants fighting Catholics because the new Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, tried to undo the religious freedoms (i.e. the right to follow the teachings of Luther) conferred by the Peace of Augsberg 60 years earlier. England was not involved in this particular war, but presumably a good number of English mercenaries were and they brought the term back with them.
Running the gauntlet was a popular punishment in the Royal Navy in the 17th century, and variations on the practice predate the expression, such as in ancient Greece where the military employed xylokopia, punishment by cudgel. In Sweden, running the gauntlet was a civilian punishment up until the 18th century; and in parts of Germany, Austria and Russia it persisted as a civilian punishment into the 19th century.
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