haunt

英文词源

haunt

haunt: [13] Etymologically, a ghost that haunts a building is only using the place as its ‘home’. The word’s distant ancestor is the prehistoric Germanic verb *khaimatjan, a derivative of the noun *khaimaz (source of English home). This was borrowed by Old French as hanter ‘frequent a place’, and passed on to English as haunt. Its main modern supernatural meaning did not develop until the 16th century (the first records of this sense come in Shakespeare’s plays).
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haunt (v.)

early 13c., "to practice habitually, busy oneself with, take part in," from Old French hanter "to frequent, resort to, be familiar with" (12c.), probably from Old Norse heimta "bring home," from Proto-Germanic *haimatjanan "to go or bring home," from *haimaz- "home" (see home (n.)). Meaning "to frequent (a place)" is c. 1300 in English. Use in reference to a spirit returning to the house where it had lived perhaps was in Proto-Germanic, but it was reinforced by Shakespeare's plays, and it is first recorded 1590 in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

haunt (n.)

c. 1300, "place frequently visited," also in Middle English, "a habit, custom" (early 14c.), from haunt (v.) in its original sense of "to practice habitually." The meaning "spirit that haunts a place, ghost" is first recorded 1843, originally in stereotypical U.S. black speech, from the later meaning of the verb.