aroint

Meanings

verbaroint (third-person singular simple present aroints, present participle arointing, simple past and past participle arointed)

present singular third person aroints · participle present arointing · participle past arointed · past arointed

archaicimperativetransitiveavaunt; begone; go away; leave!
And aroynt thee Witch, aroynt thee.
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]
1 more example
Aroynt thee, Witch, the rumpe-fed Ronyon cryes.
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]
archaicto dispel; to send away.
Whiskered cats arointed flee, Sturdy stoppers keep from thee Cologne distillations.
1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, To Flush, My Dog

Origin

Uncertain, and subject to various attempts to connect it to multiple Germanic and Romance etymons; first attested in the First Folio, and sometimes posited to be an error for anoint, referring to a witch’s supposed flight-facilitating ointment, and thus being a commandment for her to anele herself and fly away; also said to be taken from the phrase rowan tree, thought to dispel witches.

Full word history & related roots →