huntyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[hunt 词源字典]
hunt: [OE] Hunt is an ancient word, probably traceable back to an Indo-European *kend-, which also produced Swedish hinna ‘reach’. Its original Old English descendant was hentan ‘seize’, of which huntian (source of modern English hunt) was a derivative. Etymologically, therefore, hunt means ‘try to seize’.
=> hand[hunt etymology, hunt origin, 英语词源]
hunt (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English huntian "chase game," related to hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic *huntojan (cognates: Gothic hinþan "to seize, capture," Old High German hunda "booty"), from PIE *kend-.

General sense of "search diligently" (for anything) is first recorded c. 1200. Related: Hunted; hunting. Happy hunting-grounds "Native American afterlife paradise" is from "Last of the Mohicans" (1826).
hunt (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 12c., from hunt (v.). Meaning "body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds" is first recorded 1570s.