romaunt, n. and a. arch.
(rəʊˈmɔːnt)
Forms: 6 roma(u)nte, 6–8 romant, 7 romand, 7, 9 romaunt.
[a. OF. romant (later roman), an analogical variant of romanz, romans romance.]
1. A romance; a romantic tale or poem.
| 1530 Palsgr. 486/2 Though I fynde it moche used in the Romante of the Rose, it is..nowe lytle used. 1542 Chaucer's Rom. Rose 39 It is the Romaunte of the Rose, In whiche all the arte of loue I close. 1593 Drayton Ecl. vi. 37 Or else some Romant unto us areede. 1614 Selden Titles Honor 44 Take for it, this testimony out of an old Romaunt. 1682 Creech Lucretius (1683) 119 Ten thousand such Romants the Vulgar tell. 1765 Percy Reliques III. p. vi, As the Songs of Chivalry became the most popular compositions in that language, they were emphatically called Romans or Romants. 1812 Byron (title), Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a Romaunt. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth vi, Then there are the minstrels, with their romaunts and ballads. 1884 Ruskin Art of England i. 5 The habit of regarding the external and real World as a Singer of Romaunts would have regarded it. |
2. A Romance form of speech; also attrib., Romance, Romanic, in respect of language.
In quots. applied to older French and to Romansh.
| 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 41 Mye is an olde Romant worde. Ibid. 446/1 Je ruse,..and in olde Romant je lobe. Ibid. 486/2 It [adherdre] is an olde Romant worde and nowe lytle used. |
| 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. ix. viii. (1864) V. 396 note, But was the Romaunt version understood in Metz? Ibid. 405 The Romaunt among the peasants of the Alpine valleys. |