Garner

How to spell garner

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce garner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does garner mean?

1. verbTo gather or accumulate something, especially support, praise, votes, or information.

Garner in a sentence

• The proposal managed to garner support from every department.

• The documentary went on to garner several major awards.

Where does garner come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Garner began as a noun for a storehouse, specifically a place for keeping grain. It came into English in the 1100s from Old French gernier (also spelled grenier), which itself descended from the Latin granarium, meaning a granary or grain store. That Latin word was built on granum, the ordinary word for a grain or seed, which also gives us 'grain', 'granary' and 'granule'. Over the centuries the noun faded and the verb took over: from the idea of gathering grain into a barn came the modern sense of gathering or accumulating things less tangible, such as support, praise or attention. The single n and the -er ending trip people up because the word looks as if it might double a consonant like 'garner' versus 'gunner', but the spelling stays faithful to its grain-storing root.

How the word is built

• garn- (from Latin granum: grain, via Old French gernier: granary)
• -er