Where does “cant” come from?
Cant derives from Latin cantus, meaning song or singing, which developed from Latin canthus with an unclear semantic shift between the forms.
cant (English): An argot, the jargon of a particular class or...
Definitions
- An argot, the jargon of a particular class or...
Ancestry of “cant”, step by step
cant traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English cant
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | cant | bold, lively, cant |
| 2 | Middle Low German | kant | — |
| 3 | Middle Dutch | kant | — |
| 4 | Latin | canthus | the iron ring around a carriage wheel; the tire;... |
| 5 | Gaulish | cantos | — |
| 6 | Proto-Celtic | cantos | corner, rim |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kh₂ndʰ | — |
via Latin cantō
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Latin | cantō | to enchant, or call forth by charms, chant |
| 2 | Latin | canō | to sing, recite, play |
| 3 | Proto-Italic | kanō | to sing |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | kanô | vessel, vat, tub; boat |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | gan- | a vessel, tub; a vessel, vat, tub |
Words derived from “cant”