aroint
English
Etymology
Uncertain, and subject to various attempts to connect it to multiple Germanic and Romance etymons; first attested in the First Folio, and sometimes posited to be an error for anoint, referring to a witch’s supposed flight-facilitating ointment, and thus being a commandment for her to anele herself and fly away; also said to be taken from the phrase rowan tree, thought to dispel witches.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈɹɔɪnt/
- Rhymes: -ɔɪnt
Verb
aroint (third-person singular simple present aroints, present participle arointing, simple past and past participle arointed)
- (archaic, imperative, transitive) avaunt; begone; go away; leave!
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
- And aroynt thee Witch, aroynt thee.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
- Aroynt thee, Witch, the rumpe-fed Ronyon cryes.
- (archaic) to dispel; to send away.
- 1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, To Flush, My Dog:
- Whiskered cats arointed flee,
Sturdy stoppers keep from thee
Cologne distillations.
Usage notes
- Originally seems to be associated directly with supernatural beings, especially witches, however later on milkmaids employed an aphetic, dialectal form of the term in reference to their herds of cattle (see rynt).