Wantoun

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Describing someone unrestrained in conduct or desire, especially sexually ; acting without any reasonable cause or motive ; a person who is licentious or morally loose
2. Undisciplined and lacking restraint in behavior or appetite ; senseless, reckless, or done for no good reason ; an immoral person given to indulgence and excess
3. Marked by unchecked indulgence, particularly in sexual matters ; unprovoked and without rational purpose ; someone of loose morals who lives by lustful impulse

Etymology: The spelling "wantoun" is a Middle Scots form of "wanton," and it began as a description of upbringing, not behaviour. The first part, "wan-," meant "lacking," and the second came from "towen," the old past participle of a verb meaning to train, discipline, or bring up a child. A wantoun was therefore someone who had not been properly disciplined: unruly, undisciplined, or ill-bred. The sense then drifted toward excess and high spirits. Over the later Middle Ages, the word came to describe playfulness that had slipped its restraints, and only later took on the sexual connotations that dominate modern use. The Scots spelling kept the older "-oun" ending, which English had largely dropped by the early modern period, so the Scots form preserves a visible trace of the word's roots.