Etymology

hoit

H4O1I1T1

Today it means: To behave frivolously and thoughtlessly; to play the fool. Full definition →

Middle English hote
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromhote“to promise, etc.”
  2. English todayhoit

Unknown. Possibly from Old Norse, or a native Old English term. Perhaps somehow from Middle English hote (“to promise, etc.”). Compare Welsh hoetian (“to dally, dandle”), as well as Scots hoit (“to move awkwardly or clumsily, especially of a stout person or animal, to waddle”), which may be more plausible (especially in sense 2).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.