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
- To sing, especially without instruments, and as...
Ancestry of “chant”, step by step
chant traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French chant
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | chant | song; The discipline of singing |
| 2 | Old French | chant | song |
| 3 | Latin | cantus | sung, recited; sounded, blew; chanted |
| 4 | Latin | canere | present active infinitive of canō; second-person... |
| 5 | Latin | caneo | I am white, gray or hoary |
| 6 | Latin | -eo | Forms stative verbs from adjectives; dative... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -ēō | Forms stative verbs, indicating a state of being;... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -ējō | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -éh₁yeti | Thematicization of the athematic stative verbal... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -yeti | Creates transitive imperfective verbs from roots |
via Middle English chaunten
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | chaunten | To chant |
| 2 | Old French | chanter | to pray; to sing; to retell, to recount |
| 3 | Latin | cantō | to enchant, or call forth by charms, chant |
| 4 | Latin | -tō | Forms here |
| 5 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |