Where does “descant” come from?
Descant comes from Old French descaunt, from Latin discantus, meaning a melody sung above the main tune.
descant (English): A lengthy discourse on a subject; A counterpoint...
Definitions
- A lengthy discourse on a subject; A counterpoint...
Ancestry of “descant”, step by step
descant traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Romanian descântec
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romanian | descântec | magic spell, enchantment |
| 2 | Romanian | cântec | song |
| 3 | Latin | canticum | song; passage in a comedy chanted or sung;... |
| 4 | Latin | cantus | sung, recited; sounded, blew; chanted |
| 5 | Latin | canere | present active infinitive of canō; second-person... |
| 6 | Latin | caneo | I am white, gray or hoary |
| 7 | Latin | -eo | Forms stative verbs from adjectives; dative... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -ēō | Forms stative verbs, indicating a state of being;... |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | -ējō | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -éh₁yeti | Thematicization of the athematic stative verbal... |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | -yeti | Creates transitive imperfective verbs from roots |