different between haunt vs hant

English

Alternative forms

• hant (Scotland), haint (US, dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English h?mettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjan? (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?ym- (“village”).

Cognate with Old English h?mettan (“to provide housing to, bring home”); related to Old English h?m (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hônt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents) enPR: hänt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents for noun definition #2) enPR: h?nt, IPA^(key): /hænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

1. (transitive) To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
   • Foul spirits haunt my resting place.

   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     those cares that haunt the court and town

2. (transitive) To make uneasy, restless.

3. (transitive) To stalk, to follow

4. (intransitive, now rare) To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
5. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
6. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The School master

     Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

7. (intransitive) To persist in staying or visiting.

Synonyms

• (to make uneasy): nag
• (to live habitually): live, dwell; See also Thesaurus:reside

Translations

Noun

haunt (plural haunts)

1. A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, "Kitty's Class Day":

     Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts, and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.

   • 1984, Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, "Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming," Time, 8 Oct.:

     Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
2. (dialect) A ghost.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, page 93:

     ‘Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’

3. A feeding place for animals.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Utahn, unhat

English

Etymology 1

See haunt.

Noun

hant (plural hants)

1. (US, colloquial, chiefly African-American Vernacular) A ghost; a supernatural being.
   • 1907, Harold Bell Wright, New York: A.L. Burt, The Shepherd of the Hills, Chapter I, p. 20,^[1]

     “ […] Say, Mister, did you ever see a hant?”

     The gentleman did not understand.

     “A hant, a ghost, some calls ’em,” explained Jed.

   • 1934, Cecile Hulse Matschat, Suwannee River: Strange Green Land, New York: The Literary Guild of America, Chapter Three, p. 52,^[2]

     […] he shivered as though a hant had touched him with its ghostly fingers, for night was near and he was alone in a depth of the swamp where he had never been before.

   • 1967, Richard M. Dorson, American Negro Folktales, Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett, “Spirits and Hants,” p. 213,^[3]

     The term “hant” covers all malevolent and inexplicable sights and sounds. Primarily hants protect buried treasure and linger about ghoulish death spots.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, Chapter 22, p. 140,^[4]

     Naturally, I believed in hants and ghosts and “thangs.” Having been raised by a super-religious Southern Negro grandmother, it would have been abnormal had I not been superstitious.

Etymology 2

Contraction

hant

1. Pronunciation spelling of hadn’t.

Anagrams

• -anth, Hnat, Nath, Than, tahn, than

Cimbrian

Etymology

From Middle High German hant, from Old High German hant. Cognate with German Hand, English hand.

Noun

hant f (plural hénte, diminutive héntle)

1. (Sette Comuni) hand

Declension

Derived terms

• drukhan de hénte
• hàntafa ?

References

• “hant” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?h?nt]

Noun

hant (plural hantok)

1. clod (lump of earth)
2. grave (place of burial)

Declension

Derived terms

• hantol

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch hant

Noun

hant f

1. hand
2. person
3. side

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: hand
• Limburgish: handj
• Zealandic: and

Further reading

• “hant”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “hant”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *handu.

Noun

hant f

1. hand

Inflection

Alternative forms

• ande (in compounds)

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: hant
  • Dutch: hand
  • Limburgish: handj
  • Zealandic: and

Further reading

• “hant”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *handu, whence also Old English hand, Old Norse h?nd, Gothic ???????????????????????? (handus).

Noun

hant f

1. hand

Declension

Descendants

• Middle High German: hant
  • Bavarian: Hond

    Cimbrian: hant

    Mòcheno: hònt

  • German: Hand
  • Hunsrik: Hand
  • Luxembourgish: Hand
  • Vilamovian: haond
  • Yiddish: ?????? (hant)

References

1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014