aroint, aroynt
(əˈrɔɪnt)
[Origin unknown. Used by Shakespeare, whence by some modern writers.]
1. In aroint thee! (? verb in the imperative, or interjection) meaning apparently: Avaunt! Begone!
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 6 Aroynt thee, Witch, the rumpefed Ronyon cryes. 1605 ― Lear iii. iv. 129 He met the Night-Mare..Bid her a-light, and her troth-plight, And, aroynt thee, Witch, aroynt thee. 1816 Scott Antiq. vi, Aroint thee, witch! wouldst thou poison my guests with thy infernal decoctions. [Also in Quentin D. (1823) II. xix. 364.] 1831 P. Heidiger Didoniad ix. 248 Aroynt, thou lingering, long-drawn mortal Strife. |
2. Used by Mr. and Mrs. Browning as a vb.: To drive away with an execration.
| 1850 Mrs. Browning To Flush xviii, Whiskered cats arointed flee. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 156 That Humbug, whom thy soul aroints. 1880 ― Dram. Idylls, Pietro 22 Aroint the churl who prophesies. |
[The origin of Shakespeare's aroynt has been the subject of numerous conjectures, none of which can be said to have even a prima facie probability. (Cf. also arunt.) The following passages are usually cited as pointing to the same word:
Ray North C. Wds. (1691) has: Ryntye, by your leave, stand handsomely. As ‘Rynt you, witch, quoth Bessie Locket to her mother’; Proverb. Cheshire. Thoresby Lett. to Ray 1703 (Yorksh. Words) has: ‘Ryndta, used to cows to make them give way, and stand in their stalls or booyses.’
In parts of Cheshire (and ? Lancashire) ou (aʊ) is pronounced ī, ȳ (aɪ)—i.e. (aʊ) has been umlauted to (a{smY}), and delabialized to (aɪ); elsewhere it is reduced to (aə), (a(ə)), or (aː)—so that round becomes rȳnd. Rynd-ta! is thus merely a local pronunciation of ‘round thee, = move round, move about!’ The local nature, the meaning, and form of the phrase, seem all opposed to its identity with Shakespeare's aroynt.]