Definition
In law, TAUNT is a Law French adverb and adverbial prefix meaning "so," "so much," or "so far." It appears in older legal texts and pleadings, particularly those drawing on Anglo-Norman or Law French vocabulary, functioning as a modifier in compound phrases rather than standing alone as a substantive legal term.
The term appears most commonly in two compound forms preserved in Britton and related sources:
1. TAUNT COME: "So much as." Used in the context of measuring or limiting an amount, extent, or proportion — as in describing a quantity or scope of obligation relative to something else.
2. TAUNTOST: "Presently" or "immediately." An adverbial expression indicating immediacy of time, used in procedural or narrative contexts within pleadings.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A scornful or mocking remark; a jeer or mockery.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Very high or tall; as applied to a ship with taunt masts.
Neither the modern nor the historical common meaning has any relationship to the legal term. The legal TAUNT is a Law French adverb of degree and time. The English word "taunt" (mockery; or tall-masted) is a false cognate. A researcher encountering TAUNT in an early legal text should not read any connotation of provocation, insult, or ridicule into it. The word is purely functional and grammatical in its legal context.
Common Confusion
TAUNT (Law French) is easily mistaken for the modern English word "taunt," meaning a provocation or insulting remark. This confusion is more than cosmetic: in criminal law and tort contexts, verbal taunting can be legally significant — as provocation in homicide, as contributing to claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, or as a factor in self-defense analysis. A researcher reading an old French or Latin-influenced text who encounters TAUNT must determine from context whether the document is using the Law French adverb or describing conduct. In pleadings and treatises written in Law French, the adverbial meaning is virtually certain. In modern legal writing, the English meaning (provocative speech) applies exclusively.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research risk with TAUNT is misreading. Researchers working in pre-modern English legal sources — Britton, Bracton-era texts, Year Books, and early treatises that preserve Law French conventions — will encounter TAUNT and TAUNTOST in procedural and narrative passages. Mistaking the adverb for the English noun produces nonsensical readings.
The compound TAUNTOST (presently, immediately) is particularly significant in procedural contexts where timing of an act or obligation is at issue. Misreading it as describing a taunt or provocation could fundamentally alter interpretation of a passage.
Researchers in criminal law history, tort history, or provocation doctrine should be alert in the other direction: when working in modern materials and encountering "taunt" as conduct, the Law French meaning is irrelevant. The behavioral concept of taunting as provocation is handled under distinct doctrinal terms (provocation, fighting words, heat of passion) and should be researched under those headings.
The Law French TAUNT has no living doctrinal significance. Its value is entirely interpretive — unlocking meaning in historical sources where Law French conventions persist.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary English-language legal dictionary source for this term in its Law French sense. Burrill traces TAUNT, TAUNT COME, and TAUNTOST to Britton (c. 69 and c. 96), a late thirteenth-century English legal treatise written in Law French. Burrill's treatment is brief, as befits a purely grammatical term, but accurate: it identifies the adverbial and adverbial-prefix functions without embellishment.
No other major historical legal dictionary in the standard shelf — not Black's, not Bouvier's, not Tomlin's — gives this term significant treatment, which itself signals that TAUNT had ceased to appear with any frequency in legal usage by the time those dictionaries were compiled. Burrill's inclusion reflects his broader commitment to Law French vocabulary as a glossing resource for early sources. Researchers relying solely on Black's or Bouvier's will not find this entry and may have no reference point for the term when they encounter it in primary sources.
Jurisdictional Note
TAUNT in its Law French sense is not jurisdiction-specific in any modern sense — it is a feature of the shared Law French inheritance of English common law. It will appear in English sources and, less frequently, in early American colonial legal documents that drew on English forms.