Today I came across word that’s new to me – bants – which, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, means:
Playfully teasing or mocking remarks exchanged with another person or group; banter.
It’s also written bantz, and is an abbreviation of banter, a word of unknown origin which first appeared in writing in 1676 in a play by Thomas D’Urfey called Madam Fickle, and is thought to come from London street slang.
Banter has a number of meanings:
1. To engage in banter or playful conversation.
2. To play or do something amusing.
3. To tease (someone) mildly.
4. To joke about; to ridicule (a trait, habit, etc.).
5. To delude or trick; to play a prank upon.
6. To challenge to a match (US, Southern and Western, colloquial)
Apparently it originally meant “to tease or ridicule, usually in an aggressive manner”, and the banter became more friendly over time.
Sources: Wiktionary, World Wide Words, OneStopEnglish
Are there words with a similar meaning in other languages?
Irish English has ‘slagging’ and ‘messing’, which overlap somewhat with ‘banter’. Slagging is good-natured teasing (going as far as affectionate or jocular insults), while messing is a bit broader. ‘Banter’ has gained negative connotations over the years, though, which may not be reflected in some definitions.