Etymology Dictionary

TAUNT,  to scoff, mock, tease.  (F.,—L.)   'I tawnte one, I check hym, Je farde;' Palsgrave.   'Smacco,... a check or tant in woord or deede;' Florio.   The old sense had less of mockery in it, and sometimes meant merely to tease.   'For a proper wit had she,... sometime taunting without displesure and not without disport;' Sir T. More, Works, p. 57 b.   'Which liberall taunte that most gentill emperour toke in so good part;' Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, b. ii. c. 5. § 19.   A variant of M.E. tenten, to tempt, try; the pp. itented occurs in Ancren Riwle, p. 228, l. 7.—O.F. tanter (Burguy), occasional form of tenter, 'to tempt, to prove, try, sound, essay, attempt; also to suggest, provoke, or move unto evill;' Cot.—Lat. tentare, to try, prove, test, attack, assail, agitate, disquiet, &c.   As used by Cicero, the sense of tentare comes very near to that of taunt; cf. 'ut exsul potius tentare, quam consul uexare rem publicam posses;' C. Cat. i. 10. 27.   See Tempt.   β. We may note that taunt has taken up something of the sense of F. tancer (formerly also tencer), 'to chide, rebuke, check, taunt, reprove;' Cot.   But this F. tancer answers to a Low Lat. tentiare* (formed from tentum, pp. of tenere), which is a mere by-form of tentare, going back to precisely the same original; so that confusion between the senses of tenter and tancer was easy enough.   Of course we cannot derive taunt from tancer itself.   Der. taunt, sb.; taunt-er, taunt-ing-ly.   Doublet, tempt. [†]

ADDENDA

The following quotation is remarkable.   'Geuyng vnto the same taunt pour taunte, or one for another;' Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegms, Diogenes, § 68.   It suggests a possible origin of E. taunt, sb., from F. tant, so much; from Lat. tantus.   Further light is desired; on the whole, I think the etymology already given is more likely.