Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “chant” come from?

Chant comes from Middle English chaunten, from Old French chanter, from Latin cantāre, meaning to sing.

chant (English): To sing, especially without instruments, and as...

Definitions

  1. To sing, especially without instruments, and as...

Ancestry of “chant”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchchantsong; The discipline of singing
2Old Frenchchantsong
3Latincantussung, recited; sounded, blew; chanted
4Latincanerepresent active infinitive of canō; second-person...
5LatincaneoI am white, gray or hoary
6Latin-eoForms stative verbs from adjectives; dative...
7Proto-Italic-ēōForms stative verbs, indicating a state of being;...
8Proto-Italic-ējō—
9Proto-Indo-European-éh₁yetiThematicization of the athematic stative verbal...
10Proto-Indo-European-yetiCreates transitive imperfective verbs from roots

Words derived from “chant”

  • chanting
  • plainchant
  • chantlike
  • chanteth
  • chantest
  • chantingly
  • plain-chant
  • chanten
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -yeti →