tryst

Meanings

Noun

• A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.
• A mutual agreement, a covenant.
• A market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place.

Verb

• To make a tryst; to agree to meet at a place.
• To arrange or appoint (a meeting time etc.).
• To keep a tryst, to meet at an agreed place and time.

Origin

• From Middle English tryst, trist, from Old French tristre ("waiting place, appointed station in hunting"), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse treysta ("to make safe, secure"), from traust, from Proto-Germanic *traustą ("trust, shelter"), from Proto-Indo-European *deru-, *dreu-, *drū-. trust (which see).