Gantlet vs. Gauntlet

[skipperbob]

One of my pet peeves is the mis-use of the phrase "he ran the gantlet"...often mis-spoken as "he ran the gauntlet". A gauntlet being a medival chainmail glove, whereas a gantlet is two parallel lines of armed men used to punish/torture the victim who must run between them.

However, when chastizing a well-spoken friend of mine for this malaprop he offerred to bet me $$$$$$ that I was just being pedantic and that "running the gauntlet" , though technically incorrect, had become acceptable because of it's widespread & repeated use.

Anybody "know" the answer?