Etymology
1. c.1230, from O.Fr.
hanter "to frequent, resort to, be familiar with" (12c.), probably from O.N.
heimta "bring home," from P.Gmc.
*khaimat-janan, from
*khaimaz- (see home). Sense of a spirit returning to the house where it had lived was perhaps in the P.Gmc., but it was reinforced by Shakespeare's plays, and it is first recorded 1590, in
"A Midsummer Night's Dream." The noun meaning "spirit that haunts a place, ghost" is first recorded 1843, originally in stereotypical U.S. black speech.
Haunts (n.) "place or places one frequents" is c.1330, from the verb.
2. From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”).
3. Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home. See: Proto-Germanic '
*haimatjaną', Dutch '
hanteren', German, old spelling '
hantieren', Swedish '
hantera', Danish '
håndtere'.
Verbs referencing "haunt"
Esperanto
hanti, Icelandic
heimta.