Dint means force or means, in the phrase by hard work. By dint of effort, by dint of practice, by dint of sheer will.
It survives only in by dint of, and there it always introduces the means by which something was achieved against difficulty. The Old English word meant a blow, and the mark a blow leaves — which is where dent comes from too.
1noundintForce or means, in the phrase by dint of.
“She passed the exam by dint of sheer hard work.”
dint is a means.
Old English dynt means a blow or the mark it leaves. Dent is the same word.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰen- — to strike, hit
Proto-Germanic
*duntiz — a blow
Old English
dynt — dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe; the mark left by a blow; the sound or noise made by a blow, thud
Middle English
dint
English, today
dint
From Middle English dint, dent, dunt, 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”). a doublet of dent.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA