Etymograph

English

taunt

Taunt comes from Middle French tanter ‘to tempt, try, provoke’, and goes back to Latin temptō ‘to test the strength’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtemptō1‘to test the strength’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tempter2‘to try’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tanter2‘to tempt, try, provoke’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1591taunt2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old French tempter
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English taunt
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtemptōWiktionary, Old French tempter‘to test the strength’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tempterWiktionary, English taunt‘to try’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tanterWiktionary, English taunt‘to tempt, try, provoke’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1591tauntWiktionary, English taunt. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In…”

Linked words

through Latin temptō ‘to test the strength’

attempt, tent, temptation, 2 more

through Old French tempter ‘to try’

tempt, 1 more

Today it means

verb To make fun of (someone); to goad (a person) into responding, often in an aggressive manner.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “taunt”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old French tempter. 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 / Latin temptō / taunt

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