Bount

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Describing someone who is ready or prepared to set off, a usage found in older Scots speech
2. Ready and willing to head out, an archaic Scottish term for being prepared to depart
3. Prepared or set to go somewhere, a dialect word recorded in Scots dictionaries

Etymology: In Scots and northern English writing, "bount" is a variant spelling of "boun," meaning ready, prepared, or on the way to a place. Its root is Old Norse "búinn," the past participle of "búa," "to prepare," which came into northern Britain with Scandinavian settlers. The same Norse source likely gave standard English "bound" in the sense of "headed toward," as in "homeward bound." The two words are close relatives that took different paths, one staying in northern dialect spellings and the other spreading through the wider language. I am uncertain of the earliest recorded date for this exact spelling, so the form is best understood as a regional variant of the more common "boun."