Primarily in the southern United States, the word haint refers to a ghost or supernatural being, such as a poltergeist. Haint is almost certainly a variant of haunt. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Haint”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Blaine Chambers calling from Billings, Montana.
Hi, Blaine, how you doing?
I’m good, I’m good.
What can we do for you?
Well, I have a question about a word.
My brother and I grew up on a rural farm there in Arkansas. The farms were transitioning from being labor mainly to being mechanized farms. And my brother and I would play in all of these old abandoned houses. And we would come back to our farm store and tell of our adventures. And some of the old African-American ladies there would say, Fatty Red, I wouldn’t play in them houses if I was you. There’s haint in there. And we were like, haint? Now, what’s a haint? And so my brother and I discussed it. And we, you know, over the years, we just thought it was a variation of haunt. But the context it was used in seemed more malevolent than, you know, ghost. So we just, over the years, just wondered what that was.
Well, you’re exactly right. Haint is a variant of haunt, and it does refer to ghosts or spirits. My Aunt Maisa was from North Carolina, and I can remember her talking about, Don’t go by that house. It’s got a haint in it.
Yes, ma’am. Exactly, exactly. But it did really seem to me that now, and we had heard them use the word ghost. But when they used haint, it seemed to be more of a, as I said, more of a malevolent than a ghost. And according to these people, there were haints everywhere.
Yeah. That comes from my understanding as well, that a haint is definitely somebody, maybe more like a poltergeist, out for mischief.
Oh, exactly, exactly. Something that we modern-day people would refer to as a poltergeist. But like I said, my brother and I have puzzled over this for years. So the haint here, that’s a noun form of a dialect pronunciation of haunt then.
Exactly. Exactly. And it is a Southernism. I’ve read Dolly Parton talking about haints.
Yeah. Yeah. And a haint tale is a ghost story. So it’s interesting that you have that extra deeper layer of meaning of it being more malevolent than I’ve known it to be.
That’s interesting.
Yes. Well, and the way it was my brother and I, it was like when parents would tell their children, don’t go out in the woods, there’s a boogeyman there.
Yeah, yeah. As a warning mechanism to get your child to do whatever you did what they would be doing.
-huh. So have we solved this thing, guys?
I think we did, yeah.
Yes, we did. You had it. When I get out of time, I’m going to call my brother and tell him the mystery has been solved.
It has indeed. Thank you so much for your call, sir.
Thank you so much. You guys have a great day.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Thanks, Blaine.
Bye-bye.
Yes, ma’am. Well, the interesting thing about haunt, while we’re on the subject, is that it originally meant to hang around a place, right?
Right. To frequent a place.
Right. And so when we talk about, this is one of my favorite haunts. I love coming here for ice cream. That’s actually the original meaning. And then the ghost is called a haunt, or it does haunting, because it hangs around a place.
Right. Right. So that usually blows people’s minds. Like, wait a second. Did it originally refer to ghost? You’re like, nope.
No. It’s about their behavior.
Very good point.
Yes. Where you hang out. Where do you hang out? Is your haunt. Well, this is one of our favorite haunts here, library, bookstore, looking in a dictionary. If it’s yours, too, give us a call, 877-929-9673.
