I came across the word stint in an article and it seemed a rather informal word to be using in the context; however it is a very old word, coming from Middle English, stinten meaning to stop, which in turn comes from the Old English stynten which means to blunt, which in turn is derived from Old Norse stytta to cut short… and I guess that is related to stunt which we use in the same way.
Stint can be a verb, in which case it is rather mean and miserly because it means to be a bit of a cheapskate, to be a bit stingy… oh, OK, frugal and careful… but when we have visitors I urge them not to stint on anything on the table!
Stint can also be a noun in which case it is not necessarily miserly, it just means a set amount of time doing something.
What I didn’t know is that a stint is a sort of sandpiper… we see plenty of those round here!
Lois Elsden 