hunt

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hʌnt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hunten, inherited from Old English huntian (“to chase game”),^[2][3] perhaps from hunta “hunter”,^[2] from Proto-Germanic *huntojan,^[2] which is related to Old English hentan “to seize”, Gothic hinþan “to seize, capture” and Old High German herihunda “spoils of war”.^[2][4][5] Its further origin is uncertain.^[2] It is related to hint.^[3] It is not the usual Germanic word for hunting, which German and Dutch have as jagen.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pursue wild animals for food or sport: about 1000 in the OED and Barnhart.^[6][3] The Peterborough Chronicle has hunten in 1127.^[3]

Semantic evolution

To search eagerly for anything is from about 1200,^[2][6] and to pursue with hostility, to chase away, from about 1340.^[6] The noun, the act of hunting, is from the early 12th century in Etymonline and about 1375 in the OED.^[2][6] A group of people who hunt with a pack of hounds is from the 1570s,^[2][6] and a search for someone or something from about 1600.^[2] Hunt up, to search until found, is from 1791.^[2] Hunt the slipper is attested from 1766.^[2] In change-ringing it is from 1684,^[6] and of machines, to swing back and forth, from 1920.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – to chase game.^[6]
• c. 1200 – to search.^[2][6]
• c. 1250 – hunter.^[3]
• 1570s – a hunting group.^[2]
• c. 1600 – a search.^[2]
• 1791 – hunt up.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To chase and kill wild animals for food or sport.
2. To search hard for someone or something.
3. To chase someone in order to catch or harm them.
4. Of a machine, to swing back and forth around a steady state.

Noun

1. An act of hunting animals.
2. A search for something or someone.
3. A group of people who hunt together with hounds, or the area where they hunt.

Word family

• huntable
• huntedly
• headhunt
• hunt-and-peck
• hunter
• hunting
• huntress
• huntsman

Related words

• hint

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press