saunt
See also: Säunt
Scots edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English seint, partly from Old English sanct (“saint”) and partly from and confluence with Anglo-Norman seint, from Old French saint, seinte; both ultimately from Latin sanctus (“holy, consecrated, saint”). Close cognate with English saint and French saint.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
saunt (plural saunts)
- (Christianity) A canonized saint.
- 1784, Robert Burns, Epistle to J. Rankine ii.:
- Ye mak a devil o' the Saunts, An' fill them fou.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1865, Poems, page 167:
- First an' foremost, Saunt Jeems, the poetical vreeter. Saunt Tusker, Saunt Conrick, an' a' sirs ; An' ower at the Palace lives jolly Saunt Peter, An' yer welcome, ye ken, to Saunt La, sirs. We've lately been blest wi' anither same loon — Did ye ...
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (colloquial) An exceptionally holy, pious, and/or kind person.
- (Calvinism) One of the elect.
- (derogatory) A wastrel, a sanctimonious hypocrite; a reprobate.
- A saunt o Sannie Lyons, for they were deevils wi gweedness — said of one who never pleaded guilty to a fault.
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Verb edit
saunt (third-person singular simple present saunts, present participle sauntin, simple past saunt, past participle santet or sauntit or saunten)
- (intransitive) To disappear, vanish; especially in a sudden and/or mysterious way.
- 1736, Allan Ramsay, (Proverbs) 1776:
- Neither sae sinfu' as to sink, nor so haly as to saunt.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (intransitive) To be silently swallowed up.
- (transitive) To cause to vanish in a sudden or inexplicable manner; to spirit away.
- 1914, James S. Angus, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Na, I'll never fin 'm; he's been santet.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)