Etymograph

English

vaunt

Vaunt comes from Anglo-Norman vaunter, from Old French vanter ‘to boast’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wānos1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvānus2‘vain, boastful’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEvānitāre3
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400vanter2‘to boast’
  6. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400vaunter2
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500vaunten2
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1611vaunt2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin vanus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English vaunt
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old French vanter
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-Wiktionary, Latin vanus‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wānosWiktionary, Latin vanusreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvānusWiktionary, English vaunt‘vain, boastful’
  4. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEvānitāreWiktionary, Old French vanter
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400vanterWiktionary, English vaunt‘to boast’
  6. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400vaunterWiktionary, English vaunt
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500vauntenWiktionary, English vaunt
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1611vauntWiktionary, English vaunt. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’

want, various, waste, variety, vacation, vast, void, vary, variable, evacuate, vacant, waning, vacate, wane, vacuous, varicella, 25 more

through Latin vānus ‘vain, boastful’

vanity, vain, vanish, evanescent, 6 more

Today it means

verb To speak boastfully.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “vaunt”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin vanus, Old French vanter. 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-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- / vaunt

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