Medieval jouseter, leather gauntlet gloves

A Better Understanding of Gauntlet Gloves and Their Origin

Gauntlet is a word formed from a French diminutive. This root meaning is gant, defined as glove. A large form of glove is commonly described as a gauntlet; and the steel-plated gloves of medieval armor is a good example. Since the hands were so very vulnerable during the existence of hand-to-hand combat, gauntlets were quite popular. With the onset of new weapons, however, gauntlets lost their demand due to a decrease in hand-to-hand combat.

A former type of punishment for naval or military offenses, the phrase "run the gauntlet" referred to a person running in between two rows of men while being beaten by rope-ends, sticks and other weapons. Gerhard von Scharnhorst, of the Prussian Army, abolished this practice. The North American Indians also used this method to torture captured prisoners. Running the gauntlet was also used by sailors as a common form of punishment. Once a sailor was guilty of shaming his crew or himself his punishment was the arrangement of gauntlets on both sides of him. The guilty sailor would enable everyone in the crew a chance to give him punishment as he ran between the rows.