dint

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Especially in by dint of: force, power.

   O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel / The dint of pity.

Simplified etymology

Dint originally meant a stroke or blow with a weapon. The phrase by dint of arose in the mid-17th century with the meaning “by force of,” later weakening to “by means of.” Dent is essentially the same word.

From Middle English dint, dent, dünt, from Old English dynt (“dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud”), from Proto-Germanic *duntiz (“a blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to strike, hit”). Cognate with Swedish dialectal dunt, Icelandic dyntr (“a dint”). Doublet of dent.

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