Taut means pulled tight with no give at all. A taut rope, taut muscles, taut with tension.
It describes something under tension rather than merely tight — a taut rope is pulled and a tight knot is not. Figuratively it means tense: a taut atmosphere, taut prose, which for writing is a compliment meaning nothing wasted. Note the homophone taught; and that taut is Middle English with no clear ancestry beyond that.
1adjectivetautPulled tight with no give at all.
“Pull the rope taut before you tie the knot.”
2adjectivetenseTense, of an atmosphere or writing.
“It was a taut thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page.”
taut is a quality of tension.
Middle English taught means stretched or tight, of uncertain earlier origin, possibly related to tow or tight. The spelling separated from taught later.
Proto-Indo-European
*dewk-
Middle English
taught
English, today
taut
Built from
The adjective is derived from Middle English taughttoft, toght, tohte, toth, tought, touht, tout, touȝt, touʒt, towght, towht, towt, towte, toȝt, toʒte, Early Middle English tohte, towehte (“strained, stretched; distended; tight; firm”), probably from tough, touth, touʒth, toʒt (“powerful, strong; fierce, violent; not tender, tough; hardy, resilient; steadfast, stout; difficult to do or endure”) and possibly influenced by togen, towen, past participle of ten (“to extend, stretch out; to drag, haul, pull, tow, tug”) (modern English tee (“(obsolete) to draw, lead; to draw away; to go, proceed”)), or directly from its etymon Old English tēon (“to drag, draw, pull”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European dewk- (“to draw, pull”)) The word may be related to thight (“(dialectal) compact, dense; close-fitting, tight”) and tight; and is cognate with Scots tacht, taght (“taut”). The verb is probably derived from the adjective.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
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