jaunt

English

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps a palatalised alteration of daunt (“to discourage”). Compare Scots jaunder (“to ramble, jaunt to taunt, jeer”), dialectal Swedish ganta (“to play the buffoon, romp, jest”); perhaps akin to English jump. Compare jaunce. Modern usage likely influenced by jaunty.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɔːnt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (some accents) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɑːnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt, -ɑːnt

Noun

jaunt (plural jaunts)

1. (archaic) A wearisome journey.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC:

     Our Savior, meek, and with untroubled mind After his aëry jaunt, though hurried sore. Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest.

   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet:

     Fie, what a jaunt have I had.

2. A short excursion for pleasure or refreshment; a ramble; a short journey.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Some days later it happened that young Heriotside was stepping home over the Lang Muir about ten at night, it being his first jaunt from home since his arm had mended.

Translations

Verb

jaunt (third-person singular simple present jaunts, present participle jaunting, simple past and past participle jaunted)

1. (intransitive) To ramble here and there; to stroll; to make an excursion.
2. (intransitive) To ride on a jaunting car.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To jolt; to jounce.
   • 1818, Cobbett's Weekly Political Register:

     To get into a Grecian car, and to be drawn, with Minerva at his back […] four or five miles through the streets of London‥after having quietly suffered himself to be jaunted about in this manner

4. (obsolete) To tire a horse by riding it hard or back and forth.

Derived terms

• jaunting car

Translations

References

• Jaunting-Car in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• jantu, junta