different between wont vs wanton

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??nt/, /w?nt/
• (General American) enPR: w?nt, wônt, w?nt, w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/, /w?nt/, /wo?nt/, /w?nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• Homophone: want (some pronunciations)
• Homophone: won't (some pronunciations)

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; apparently a conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and wont (participle adjective, below). Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”) and Dutch gewoonte. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, and win, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wenh?- (“to wish for, strive for, pursue; to succeed, win”); more there.

(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

wont (usually uncountable, plural wonts)

1. (archaic) One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
   • 2001, Orhan Pamuk; Erda? M. Göknar, transl., “I am Called Black”, in My Name Is Red, London: Faber and Faber, ?ISBN; paperback edition, London: Faber and Faber, 2002, ?ISBN, page 62:

     With a simple-minded desire, and to rid my mind of this irrepressible urge, I retired to a corner of the room, as was my wont, but after a while I realized I couldn't jack off—proof well enough that I'd fallen in love again after twelve years!

Translations

See also

• meo more

Etymology 2

From Middle English wont, iwoned, from Old English ?ewunod, past participle of ?ewunian. The verb is derived from the adjective.

Adjective

wont (not comparable)

1. Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something).
   • c. 1580, Edmund Spenser, “The Teares of the Mvses[: Thalia]”, in Complaints: Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. VVhereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, ?OCLC; republished in “The Teares of the Mvses[: Thalia]”, in The Faerie Qveen: The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the Other Works of England's Arch-Pöet, Edm. Spenser: Collected into One Volume, and Carefully Corrected, London: Printed by H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes, 1617, ?OCLC:

     What be the ?weet delights of learning a trea?ure, / That wont with Comick ?ock to beautify / The painted Theaters, and fill with plea?ure / The li?tners eyes, and eares with melodie; […]

Derived terms

• unwont
• use and wont
• wontly

Translations

See also

• prone to
• used to

Verb

wont (third-person singular simple present wonts, present participle wonting, simple past and past participle wonted)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To be accustomed (to something), to be in the habit (of doing something).
   • 1751, [Thomas Gray], An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-yard, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M[ary] Cooper in Pater-noster-Row, ?OCLC; republished as “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard”, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands, volume IV, 2nd edition, London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, at Tully's-Head in Pall-Mall, 1758, ?OCLC, page 5:

     On ?ome fond brea?t the parting ?oul relies, / Some pious drops the clo?ing eye requires; / Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, / Ev'n in our A?hes live their wonted Fires.

Translations

Anagrams

• Town, nowt, town

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wonte, wontt, woont

Etymology

From Old English wand, wond, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?nt/, /w??nt/

Noun

wont (plural wontes)

1. mole (Talpa europea)

   Synonyms: moldewarpe, molle

Descendants

• English: want (dialectal)
• Scots: want

References

• “wont(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Etymology

From Middle English wantoun, wantowen, wanto?en, wantowe (“uneducated; unrestrained; licentious; sportive; playful”), from wan- (“not, un-, mis-”) + towen, i-towen (“educated”, literally “towed; led; drawn”), from Old English togen, ?etogen, past participle of t?on (“to train, discipline”), equivalent to wan- +? towed.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?nt?n/
• (US) enPR: wän't?n, IPA^(key): /?w?nt?n/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?w?nt?n/, /?w?nt?n/
• Rhymes: -?nt?n
• Homophone: wonton (some accents)

Adjective

wanton (comparative wantoner, superlative wantonest)

1. (archaic) Undisciplined, unruly; not able to be controlled.
   • 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.1:

     As Flies to wanton Boyes are we to th' Gods, / They kill us for their sport.

   • 1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper [...] To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87:

     'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wi?h to ?hine, the thir?t to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ?uch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loo?e, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, va?t / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

2. (obsolete) Playful, sportive; merry or carefree.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1:

     The grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety, which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind.

3. Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones:

     if wenches will hang out lures for fellows, it is no matter what they suffer: I detest such creatures; and it would be much better for them that their faces had been seamed with the smallpox: but I must confess I never saw any of this wanton behaviour in poor Jenny [...].

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd:

     I know I ought never to have dreamt of sending that valentine—forgive me, sir—it was a wanton thing which no woman with any self-respect should have done.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.21:

     People should not marry too young, because, if they do, the children will be weak and female, the wives will become wanton, and the husbands stunted in their growth.

4. Capricious, reckless of morality, justice etc.; acting without regard for the law or the well-being of others; gratuitous.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility:

     Edward himself, now thoroughly enlightened on her character, had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost meanness of wanton ill-nature.

   • 2009, Ben White, The Guardian, 10 Aug 2009:

     these developments in Gaza are a consequence of the state of siege that the tiny territory has been under – a society that has been fenced-in, starved, and seen its very fabric torn apart by unemployment and wanton military destruction.

5. (archaic) Extravagant, unrestrained, excessive.
   • 1776, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I:

     the market price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to animate more or less the eagerness of the competition.

   • 1876, John Ruskin, Letters, 19 Jan 1876:

     But do not think it argues change of temper since I wrote the Frère review, or a wanton praise of one man and blame of another.

Synonyms

• (undisciplined): see Thesaurus:wanton
• (playful, overly happy): frolicsome, playful
• (lewd): lewd, lustful, unchaste
• (capriciously violent): inhumane, callous, merciless
• (luxuriant): extravagant, lavish, luxuriant, prodigal, unrestrained

Derived terms

• wanton kittens make sober cats

Translations

Noun

wanton (plural wantons)

1. A pampered or coddled person.
   • c. 1591-1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

     I would have thee gone — / And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, / That lets it hop a little from her hand, / Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, / And with a silken thread plucks it back again […]

2. An overly playful person; a trifler.

   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Oberon, the Faery Prince

     Peace, my wantons; he will do / More than you can aim unto.

   • 1898: Charles Dickens: A Critical Study by George Gissing

     This quiet remark serves to remind one, among other things that, Dickens was not without his reasons for a spirit of distrust towards religion by law established, as well as towards sundry other forms of religion--the spirit which, especially in his early career, was often misunderstood as hostility to religion in itself, a wanton mocking at sacred things.

3. A self-indulgent person, fond of excess.
4. (archaic) A lewd or immoral person, especially a prostitute.
   • 1891: Jerusalem: Its History and Hope by Mrs. Oliphant

     ...paints with tremendous force the adulteries of the two wantons Aholah and Aholibah, Israel and Judah, and their love of strangers...

   • 1936: Like the Phoenix by Anthony Bertram

     However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie—did actually solicit me, did actually say ‘coming home to-night, dearie’ and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.

Translations

Verb

wanton (third-person singular simple present wantons, present participle wantoning, simple past and past participle wantoned)

1. (intransitive) To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Prologue,^[1]

     […] We will fetch thee straight

     Adonis painted by a running brook,

     And Cytherea all in sedges hid,

     Which seem to move and wanton with her breath

     Even as the waving sedges play wi’ th’ wind.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 5, lines 294-296,^[2]

     […] Nature here

     Wantond as in her prime, and plaid at will

     Her Virgin Fancies […]

   • c. 1820, Charles Lamb, “Christ’s Hospital, Five and Thirty Years Ago” in Essays of Elia, Paris: Baudry’s European Library, 1835, p. 15,^[3]

     How merrily we would sally into the fields; and strip under the first warmth of the sun; and wanton like young dace in the streams […]

   • 1927, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, London: Hogarth Press, 1930, Part 2, 9, p. 217,^[4]

     It might well be, said Mrs. McNab, wantoning on with her memories […]

2. (transitive) To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away).

   The young man wantoned away his inheritance.

   • 1660, Samuel Pepys, diary entry for 28 April, 1660, in Henry B. Wheatley (ed.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, London: George Bell, 1905, Volume 8, p.290,^[5]

     […] with this money the King shall wanton away his time in pleasures […]

   • 1881, Christina Rossetti, Called to Be Saints, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, “St. Matthias, Apostle,” p. 153,^[6]

     […] Samson, having wantoned away his strength and paying the penalty […]

   • 1929, Witter Bynner and Jiang Kanghu (translators), “A Song of an Old General” in The Jade Mountain, New York: Vintage, 1972, p. 203,^[7]

     And never would he wanton his cause away with wine.

   • 1948, Digby George Gerahty (as Robert Standish), Elephant Walk, New York: Macmillan, 1949, Chapter 15, p. 214,^[8]

     If either of us felt the respect for George that you imply by your manner, you know perfectly well that we wouldn’t have wantoned away the day as we have.

3. (intransitive) To act wantonly; to be lewd or lascivious.
   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 62,,^[9]

     Be loving and courteous to your fellow Servants, not gigling or idling out your time, or wantoning in the society of men […]

   • […] whole herds or flocks of other women securely, and scarce regarded, traverse the park, the play, the opera, and the assembly; and though, for the most part at least, they are at last devoured, yet for a long time do they wanton in liberty, without disturbance or controul.

Synonyms

• (to act wantonly): See Thesaurus:harlotize

Translations

Related terms

• wantonly
• wantonness
• wantonry

Anagrams

• Antwon