haint

See also: hain't

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heɪnt/
• Rhymes: -eɪnt

Etymology 1

Verb

haint (third-person singular simple present haints, present participle hainting, simple past and past participle hainted)

1. (US, dialectal) Alternative form of haunt
   • 1988, Randy Russell, Janet Barnett, “Dead Dan's Shadow on the Wall”, in Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina, page 5:

     Looking from juror to juror and seeking out the smug faces of the witnesses who'd testified against him, he repeated his threat. "Those who say I kilt anybody are liars," he proclaimed. "And each of you will be hainted every day for the rest of your life. Then the devil will have ye."

   • 2003, Winson Hudson, Derrick Bell, Constance Curry, Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter, page 17:

     After he killed him, Ed came back and he didn't have no head and he hainted [haunted] Ole Master until he died himself — getting in his way all the time — Ole Ed would be right there with him.

   • 2003, W. Bruce Wingo, There Grows a Crooked Tree‎^[1], page 92:

     “I just don't think it happened that way,” he argued. “Otherwise, the ghost wouldn't still be hainting the tree.”

Noun

haint (plural haints)

1. (US, dialectal) A ghost; a supernatural being; Alternative form of haunt.
   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, part 2, page 254:

     "Ain't you scared of haints?"

   • 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, page 18:

     I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms.

   • 2005, Eulie Rowan, “The Four-Legged Haint”, in The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, Simon and Schuster, page 106:

     It didn't take long for word to spread that there was a "haint" in the graveyard. A haint is what the old-timers called a ghost.

   • 2009, Mary Monroe, God Still Don't Like Ugly‎^[2], page 211:

     My dead grandpa's haint floated above my bed one night when I was a young'un and scared me so bad I busted the bedroom door down tryin' to get out that room so fast.

Derived terms

• haint blue

Related terms

• ha'nt, hant, harnt

Etymology 2

Contraction

haint

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of ain't

Anagrams

• hatin', ahint, Ihnat, Thain, Intha, IHNTA

Cimbrian

Alternative forms

• hoint (Luserna)

Etymology

From Middle High German *heinaht, from Old High German hīnaht (“tonight”), from hī (“this”, from Proto-Germanic *hiz) + naht (“night”). Cognate with obsolete German heint, heinacht (“tonight”), Bavarian heint (“today”).

Adverb

haint

1. (Sette Comuni) this evening

Derived terms

• haintenacht (“tonight”)

Related terms

• hôar

References

• “haint” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

Irish

Noun

haint f sg

1. h-prothesized form of aint

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hai̯nt/

Noun

haint f (plural heintiau, not mutable)

1. infection, disease

   Synonym: clefyd

2. plague, pestilence

   Synonyms: pla, bad

Derived terms

• gwrth-haint
• heintio
• heintrydd
• heintus

 

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “haint”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies