Hello,

This week’s word is lunting, with thanks to a writing friend Maera Black, who suggested it to me years ago as an interesting obscure word. It made it to my list but never made it to the blog, until now.

Lunting means to relax walking while smoking a pipe. I don’t smoke, but I did a little fake lunting when dressed as Sherlock a few years ago and I can promise you, it is relaxing.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the first use of lunting was in 1786 in the writing of Robbie Burns, the Scottish poet. That sent me to my Scots Dictionary but sadly lunting wasn’t listed there. However the online Scottish National Dictionary has multiple listings including one dating to the early 1800s for a lunt being a match or other flammable material used to light your pipe or fire.

The word comes from lont in Dutch which was a match or a fuse. It has a cousin word in Middle Low German – lunte – with the same meaning. So this word is one the Dutch gave us.

We don’t see too many gentlemen, or ladies, lunting these days, but the idea of an excuse to wander off for a stroll alone with your thoughts is appealing all the same. Perhaps we could lunt with a good book instead?

Until next time happy reading, writing, lunting, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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