Other forms: daunting, daunted
To daunt is to make somebody lose their nerve. Nothing daunted her, a daunting task, daunted by the size of it.
It is most alive in the participle, so daunting and undaunted are commoner than the plain verb. The Latin behind it is to tame, which is what a daunting prospect does to your confidence.
1verbdauntTo make somebody lose their nerve.
“The size of the task did not daunt her in the least.”
daunt is a discouraging.
Old French danter comes from Latin domitare, to tame, from domare, to subdue.
Proto-Indo-European
*demh₂-
Middle English
daunten
English, today
daunt
Built from
From Middle English daunten. From Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, donter (“to tame”), from Latin domitō (“tame”), frequentative of Latin domō (“tame, conquer”), from Proto-Italic domaō, from Proto-Indo-European demh₂- (“to domesticate, tame”). a doublet of dompt.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA