Etymology

wanton

W4A1N1T1O1N1

Today it means: Undisciplined, unruly; not able to be controlled. Full definition →

Middle English wantoun ← Old English togen
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

wanton · adjective, noun, verb1

  1. Old English · inherited fromtogen
  2. Middle English · inherited fromwantoun
  3. English todaywanton

From Middle English wantoun, wantowen, wantoȝen, wantowe (“uneducated; unrestrained; licentious; sportive; playful”), from wan- (“not, un-, mis-”) + towen, i-towen (“educated”, literally “towed; led; drawn”), from Old English togen, ġetogen, past participle of tēon (“to train, discipline”), equivalent to wan- + towed.

wanton · noun2

  1. Cantonese · borrowed from雲吞 /云吞
  2. English todaywanton

Borrowed from Cantonese 雲吞 /云吞 (wan⁴ tan¹).

Words from the same roots

Cantonese雲吞 all →

wonton

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.