Other forms: bounties
A bounty is a generous supply, or a reward offered. Nature's bounty, a bounty on his head, claim the bounty.
The reward sense is the live one: a bounty is money offered by an authority for a capture or for killing a pest, and bounty hunting is still legal in parts of the United States. The word first meant goodness or generosity, from the Latin bonus.
1nounbountyA reward offered for a capture.
“The sheriff offered a bounty for the capture of the outlaw.”
2noungenerousA generous supply.
“The autumn garden gave us a bounty of apples, plums and pumpkins.”
bounty is a reward, or an abundance.
Old French bonte means goodness, from Latin bonitas, from bonus, good. The reward sense came from generosity.
Latin
bonitās
Old French
bonté
Anglo-Norman
bounté
Middle English
bounte — goodness, virtue; beauty; strength; chivalry, valour; excellence; kindness, mercy; good deed; generosity
English, today
bounty
From Middle English bounte (“goodness, virtue; beauty; strength; chivalry, valour; excellence; kindness, mercy; good deed; generosity”)bonte, bontie, bount, bounte, bountee, bountie, bownte, bunte, bwnte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman bounté and Old French bonté, bontet, bunté (modern French bonté (“goodness, kindness”)), from Latin bonitās.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA