saunt

Scots

FWOTD – 22 February 2018

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): [sɑːnt], [sɔːnt]
• (Northern, Insular) IPA^(key): [saːn(ʔ)t]

Saunt Columbkille (Columba), Apostle to the Picts, proselytizing at King Bridei's fortress. Illustrated by J. R. Skelton.

Noun

saunt (plural saunts)

1. (Christianity) A canonized saint.
   • 1784, Robert Burns, Epistle to J. Rankine ii.:

     Ye mak a devil o' the Saunts, An' fill them fou.

   • 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 ...

2. (colloquial) An exceptionally holy, pious, and/or kind person.
3. (Calvinism) One of the elect.
4. (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.

Verb

saunt (third-person singular simple present saunts, present participle sauntin, simple past saunt, past participle santet or sauntit or saunten)

1. (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.

2. (intransitive) To be silently swallowed up.
3. (transitive) To cause to vanish in a sudden or inexplicable manner; to spirit away.
   • 1914, James S. Angus

     Na, I'll never fin 'm; he's been santet.

Alternative forms

• saant, saint, seint, sanct

References

• Dictionary of the Scots Language - saunt