Etymograph

English

hunt

Hunt comes from Old English huntian, from Proto-West Germanic *huntōn, from Proto-Germanic *huntōną ‘to hunt’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*huntōną1‘to hunt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*huntōn1‘to hunt’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150huntian1‘to hunt’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hunten1‘to hunt’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591hunt1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hunt
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “He after honour hunts, I after love.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*huntōnąWiktionary, English hunt‘to hunt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*huntōnWiktionary, English hunt‘to hunt’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150huntianWiktionary, English hunt‘to hunt’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500huntenWiktionary, English hunt‘to hunt’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1591huntWiktionary, English hunt. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “He after honour hunts, I after love.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- ‘to catch, seize’

centre, hint, quant, 9 more

Today it means

verb To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hunt”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *huntōną / hunt

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