The story
- Middle English · inherited fromhote“to promise, etc.”
- 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.