different between vagary vs stunt

English

Etymology

From Latin vagus (“wandering”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, formerly) IPA^(key): /v?????i/
• (General American, now commonly) IPA^(key): /?ve????i/

Noun

vagary (plural vagaries)

1. An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
   • 1871, Charles Kingsley, At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies, ch. 8:

     It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.
2. An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:whim

   • 1905, Jack London, War of the Classes, Preface:

     And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

Derived terms

• vagarity
• vagarious

Related terms

• vague
• vagrant
• vagabond

Translations

See also

• vaguery

Anagrams

• Varyag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt

Etymology 1

Unknown. Compare Middle Low German stunt (“a shoulder grip with which you throw someone on their back”), Middle English stunt (“foolish; stupid”).

Noun

stunt (plural stunts)

1. A daring or dangerous feat, often involving the display of gymnastic skills.
2. (archaic) skill
   • 1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1

     "See if you can hit the barrel, Joe," urged George Bland. "A lot of us have missed it, including Peaches, who seems to think his particular stunt is high throwing."

3. (American football) A special means of rushing the quarterback done to confuse the opposing team's offensive line.

Hyponyms

• publicity stunt

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Danish: stunt
• ? German: Stunt
• ? Norwegian Bokmål: stunt
• ? Norwegian Nynorsk: stunt

Translations

Verb

stunt (third-person singular simple present stunts, present participle stunting, simple past and past participle stunted)

1. (intransitive, cheerleading) To perform a stunt.
2. (intransitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To show off; to posture.
   • 2015, Seth Turner Jr., Brother: The Self-made Story of a St. Louis Entrepreneur:

     I was that interested because I wanted the Z28, but I wasn't going another day with Sterling stunting on me with the Contour.

Translations

Etymology 2

From dialectal stunt (“stubborn, dwarfed”), from Middle English stont, stunt (“short, brief”), from Old English stunt (“stupid, foolish, simple”), from Proto-Germanic *stuntaz (“short, compact, stupid, dull”). Cognate with Middle High German stunz (“short”), Old Norse stuttr (“short in stature, dwarfed”). Related to Old English styntan (“to make dull, stupefy, become dull, repress”). More at stint.

Verb

stunt (third-person singular simple present stunts, present participle stunting, simple past and past participle stunted)

1. (transitive) To check or hinder the growth or development of.

Translations

Noun

stunt (plural stunts)

1. A check in growth.
2. That which has been checked in growth; a stunted animal or thing.
3. A two-year-old whale, which, having been weaned, is lean and yields little blubber.

Anagrams

• Nutts

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

stunt m (plural stunts, diminutive stuntje n)

1. stunt

Verb

stunt

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of stunten
2. imperative of stunten

Middle English

Noun

stunt

1. Alternative form of stound: various spans of time.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English stunt.

Noun

stunt n (definite singular stuntet, indefinite plural stunt, definite plural stunta or stuntene)

1. a stunt

Derived terms

• stuntmann

References

• “stunt” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English stunt.

Noun

stunt n (definite singular stuntet, indefinite plural stunt, definite plural stunta)

1. a stunt

Derived terms

• stuntmann

References

• “stunt” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stuntaz (“short, stunted; stupid”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stunt/

Adjective

stunt

1. stupid, foolish
2. (substantive) idiot, fool

Declension

Synonyms

• dwæs

Descendants

• Middle English: stunt, stont
  • English: stunt