taunt

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4][5] Many dictionaries take it as borrowed from French tant pour tant (“so much for so much, tit for tat”),^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]} first brought into English as taunt pour taunt and taunt for taunt,^[2][8] from tant (“so much”), from Latin tantum, the neuter of tantus (“so great”),^[10][6][11] from tam (“so”).^[3] The OED thinks this the most likely suggestion, but finds that the dates of the noun and the verb make it doubtful.^[2] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster, Klein and Partridge instead suggest Middle French tanter, a variant of tenter (“to try, tempt, provoke”), from Old French tempter, from Latin temptō (“to test, try”), the source of tempt.^{[13][14][15][16]} The OED finds this inadequate, as it does Middle High German tant (“empty talk”) and Dutch tanden.^[2] Weekley supposed that the French phrase was also associated with French tancer (“to rebuke, scold”).^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A remark made to wound or provoke: about 1499, in Skelton's The Bowge of Courte.^[2][13] Barnhart finds the verb earlier, in 1438, as tanten, to mock or jeer, implied in tantingly,^[13] while the OED's first verb is from before 1529, also in Skelton,^[2] and Ayto gives 1513.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Those who derive the word from the French phrase start from a return thrust: the OED records taunt for taunt, tit for tat, from 1542 to 1620, and a clever rejoinder or banter from before 1566 to 1625.^[2][10] The verb similarly meant to answer back in kind or to exchange banter (before 1529 to 1548), and to chaff someone (about 1530 to 1596).^[2] The wounding sense, already in the noun's first record, took over the verb in the 1550s or 1560:^[3][2] it meant to reproach someone scornfully, and that sense survives.^[2] From 1813, in Byron, it could also mean to drive someone to something by taunting.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines the noun as "insult; scoff; reproach; ridicule", with quotations from Shakespeare.^[18] The King James Bible of 1611, at Jeremiah 24:9, uses the noun for the object of such scorn.^[2] In dialect, the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Worcestershire for daring or tempting someone, and it also meant to tease or pester.^[19][10]

Timeline

• c. 1499 – noun, a remark made to anger or provoke.^[2]
• before 1529 – verb, to answer back, to exchange banter (obsolete by 1548).^[2]
• c. 1530 – to banter with someone (obsolete by 1596).^[2]
• 1542 – taunt for taunt, tit for tat (obsolete by 1620).^[2]
• 1560 – to reproach someone scornfully; to utter taunts.^[2] Etymonline dates the reproaching sense to the 1550s.^[3]
• before 1566 – a clever rejoinder, a witty gibe (obsolete by 1625).^[2]
• 1611 – the object of scornful gibes.^[2]
• 1813 – to drive someone to something by taunting.^[2]
• 1873 – to say something tauntingly, in Browning.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To provoke or reproach someone with mockery or insults: The rival fans taunted the goalkeeper about his mistake.^[9][14][2]
2. To tease or tantalize.^[9]
3. To drive someone to something by taunting.^[2][10]
4. (obsolete, before 1529–1548) To answer back; to exchange banter.^[2][10]

Noun

1. A jeering or wounding remark: He ignored their taunts and walked on.^[9][14][2]
2. (archaic) A person who is mocked; an object of scorn.^[9][14][2]
3. (obsolete, before 1566–1625) A clever rejoinder; a witty gibe.^[2][10]

Word family

• taunter
• tauntingly
• untaunted

Related words

• tempt
• tantamount
• tandem
• ataunt

Usage notes

A nautical adjective taunt, of masts that are very tall, is recorded from about 1579 and has a separate history.^[2] The OED calls its origin obscure and links it with ataunt,^[2] the Shorter Oxford and Weekley derive it from that word by loss of the first vowel,^[10][17] and Klein from French tant.^[15] Dictionary.com warns against confusing taunt with taut and taught.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
17. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)