[Of unknown etymology: it is doubtful whether the vb. or sb. was the earlier; existing evidence is in favor of the vb. The sb. was treated as slang in 1688: Swift, in the Apology to his Tale of a Tub (1710), says that it ‘was first borrowed from the bullies in White Friars, then fell among the footmen, and at last retired to the pedants’; in Tatler, No. 230, he classes it with bamboozle, country put, and kidney, as a word ‘invented by some pretty Fellows’ and ‘now struggling for the Vogue.’ But the vb. was then nearly 40 years old.]
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. ix. § 7. He that first brought the word … Banter in use, put together as he thought fit, those Ideas he made it stand for.
1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230, ¶ 7. I have done my utmost for some years past to stop the Progress of Mobb and Banter.
1722. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 659. Such plain raillery, that unless I should learn banter and Billingsgate, which I still thought below a historian, there is no answering it.
1. Wanton nonsense talked in ridicule of a subject or person; hence, humorous ridicule generally; now usually, good-humored raillery, pleasantry.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 232. The ordinary reasons of War and Peace, are very little better than Banter and Paradox.
1705. S. Whately, in Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch., I. 172. I know no better way of answering bombast, than by banter.
1710. Swift, T. Tub (1760), Apol. 11. Peter’s Banter (as he calls it in his Alsatia phrase) upon transubstantiation.
1844. Dickens, Mar. Chuz. (C. D. ed.), 249. She took it for banter, and giggled excessively.
1880. L. Stephen, Pope, v. 113. Gay … had an illimitable flow of good-tempered banter.
2. An instance of such ridicule, a merry jest. arch.
1700. Ch. Eng. Loyalty, in Somers, Tracts, II. 562. ’Tis such a Jest, such a Banter, to say, we did take up Arms, but we did not kill him: Bless us, kill our King, we wou’d not have hurt a Hair of his Head!
1759. Dilworth, Pope, 80. Satires on the nobility of both sexes, banters upon good authors.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, xvii. 147. The general had received all her approaches with a banter.
† 3. A matter of ridicule or jest. Obs.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), I. 167. Your Zeal’s a Banter to all Meh of Sense.
4. (in U.S.) A challenge to a race, shooting-match, etc.
1860. in Bartlett, Dict. Amer.
