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Gontar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gontar is a Russian occupational surname that refers to a roofer or shingler. The occupational meaning is obsolete, as with many such surnames including the equivalent in English Shingler, and German Schindler. Gontar derives from Russian gont (гонт), shingle,[1] from Polish gont, shingle,[2][3] from Middle High German gant, beam,[4] from Latin cantherius, rafter,[5] from Greek kanthelion (κανθήλιον), rafter.[6] The English word gantry also derives from the Latin cantherius.[7]

The same slavic word for shingle, and the surname, also exist in Ukrainian as both Gontar and Hontar,[8] and in Polish, Gontar.[9] The Ukrainian spelling "Гонтар" is pronounced close to what would be in English Hontar, reflecting the kind of difference in Horowitz and Gorowitz, and H versus G in other versions of that name.[10]

As spelled Gontar, 75% of people bearing the surname live in Russia, at 3,192.[11] Yet 99% of people bearing the Hontar spelling live in Ukraine, and more than double the bearers of the Gontar spelling worldwide.[12]

Notable people with the surname include:

See also

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References

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  1. https://context.reverso.net/translation/russian-english/гонт
  2. https://en.bab.la/dictionary/polish-english/gont
  3. Dictionary of the Ukrainian language in 11 volumes, Naukova Dumka, Kyiv 1980
  4. Dictionary of the Ukrainian language in 11 volumes, Naukova Dumka, Kyiv 1980
  5. Ulrich, Roger B. Roman Woodworking. Yale University Press, 2007, p.366
  6. https://lsj.gr/wiki/κανθήλια
  7. "Gantry | Etymology, origin and meaning of gantry by etymonline".
  8. "ГОНТ — ПЕРЕКЛАД | Горох — українські словники". goroh.pp.ua.
  9. https://en.bab.la/dictionary/polish-english/gont
  10. Г in Ukrainian indicates a slightly fricative H sound. In Russian, Г sounds as a hard g, written in Ukrainian by a Ghe with upturn, Ґ. Many people in Ukraine, however, appear to use the Gontar pronunciation. The usual Russian Cyrillic spelling is Гонтарь.
  11. "Gontar Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History". forebears.io.
  12. "Hontar Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History". forebears.io.