By Betty Kirkpatrick
Some words are much better than others at suggesting their meaning. Scots has many such words, one of them being dunt. Dunt as a noun usually translates into English as a heavy blow, which just goes to show how superior the Scots language is in this respect.
Blow, whose origin is unknown, may be hard-hitting in meaning, but it sounds a bit of a lightweight in comparison with dunt. The English word thump is probably nearer the mark.
Dunt, which also appears in some Northern English dialects, first appeared in the Scots language in the sixteenth century.
The origin is a bit uncertain, but it is likely to be imitative of the sound made by a heavy blow, especially a heavy, dull-sounding blow. Good old onomatopoeia in action again. Dunt is likely to have associations with English dint and Norwegian dialect dunt, a blow.
The noun dunt can be used in various contexts. A severe dunt to the head can render you unconscious and get you transported to hospital. The word dunt can apply to the wound caused by a heavy blow as well as to the blow itself. A severe dunt on the head might take a long time to heal.
If the person next to you at a lecture or some kind of performance is falling asleep you can give them a dunt with your elbow to wake them up. Many a recalcitrant machine springs into life after a good dunt. The careless driver behind you can give your car a substantial dunt if you have to stop suddenly when their attention is elsewhere.
Dunt can also be used to refer to the sound made by something heavy falling. Thus a big tree can fall with a dunt in a storm. Dunt can also refer to a quickened heartbeat, and, if you are very scared or anxious, you can be only too aware of these dunts in your chest.
The noun dunt can also be used figuratively. Thus, your confidence can take a bit of a dunt if you fail in some enterprise and your trust in someone can also take a dunt if a promise is not kept. If you tak a dunt generally your plans and hopes have received a major setback.
The word dunt is also used as a verb with meanings corresponding to those of the noun. So it can mean to beat or strike someone or something, as in to dunt someone with your fist or dunt someone’s nose. It can mean to bump into something, as in to dunt a wall when you are reversing the car carelessly. The heart can dunt alarmingly in moments of fear.
Curiously enough, the expression dunt oot does not involve violence or blows. It is a non-aggressive expression meaning to thrash out the details of a misunderstanding or quarrel to try to settle or resolve it. You might have expected fisticuffs.
Dunt has several interesting phrases connected with it. There is in a dunt, meaning very rapidly. If something is the verra (very) dunt it is the very thing, just what is wanted. If you are told to never let dunt, you are being asked to keep your mouth shut about something. To get the dunt is to be knocked out or, figuratively, to get the sack.
Finally, there is the old proverb Words are but wind, but dunts are the devil. How true.
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