avaunt

avaunt

English

Etymology

First used 1275–1325; Middle English, from Old French avant (“to the front”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈvɔːnt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

Interjection

avaunt

1. (archaic) Begone; depart; used in contempt or abhorrence.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 114:

     In order to exorcise this she-devil, the attendants made circles on the walls with charcoal, within each was written: "Adam, Eve, Lilas, avaunt!"

Noun

avaunt (plural avaunts)

1. (obsolete) A vaunt; a boast.

Verb

avaunt (third-person singular simple present avaunts, present participle avaunting, simple past and past participle avaunted)

1. (obsolete) To advance; to move forward; to elevate.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     But he, the more outrageous and bold,
     Sternely did bid him quickely thence avaunt

2. (obsolete) To depart; to move away.
   • 1549, Miles Coverdale (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the New Testament, London: Edward Whitchurche, Volume 2, Jude 21

     That they should not avaunt […] into the dongeon of eternal damnacion.

3. (archaic) To vaunt; to boast.

References

• avaunt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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Old French

Adverb

avaunt

1. (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of avant

References

• avaunt on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

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Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Vallader) avant
• (Sursilvan) avon
• (Sutsilvan) avànt

Etymology

From Late Latin ab ante, from Latin ab + ante, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front, forehead”).

Preposition

avaunt

1. (Puter) ago

Related terms

• aunz (“before, beforehand”)