Bunt
/bʌnt/noun
A baseball hit that is softly tapped into play, or to push or strike with the head or horns.
Did you know?The baseball term likely developed from the older dialect verb meaning “to butt or thrust,” so the word’s energy is literally about impact, not elegance.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
beudh-
“to strike, push, or thrust”
Old English
OE
buttan
“to butt, strike with the head or horns”
Middle English
ME
bunten
“to push, thrust, or butt”
18th-19th Century
English
bunt
“to push or thrust; a head-first shove”
19th Century
English
bunt
“a soft hit in baseball, named from the older sense of a shove or butt”
Modern English
English
bunt
“a softly tapped baseball hit; also to push with the head or horns”