canticle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English canticle, also cantikil,^[2] borrowed from Latin canticulum (“little song”),^{[3][2][4][5][6][7]} a diminutive of canticum (“song”),^[3][8][5][6] from cantus (“song, singing”),^[8][5][9] from the past-participial stem of canō (“to sing”),^[8][9][4] from Proto-Indo-European *kan- (“to sing”).^[8][4] Hoad instead takes it from a variant of Old French cantique, probably reinforced by the Latin diminutive,^[10] and Dictionary.com also marks a possible passage through Old French.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the biblical songs used in the liturgy: before 1225, in the Winteney version of the Benedictine Rule, “Þri canticles beon ȝæssed of þare witeȝen bocan”.^[2][5] Etymonline gives the early 13th century.^[8] The OED's first example is of a song written by Moses, in Genesis and Exodus (manuscript before 1325, the text about 1250).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Middle English already had the liturgical song, the Song of Songs, a sacred song and a secular song in that style.^[2] The OED's dates are later: it gives 1625 for the liturgical sense, in Bacon's “The sweetest Canticle is, Nunc dimittis”, and 1526 for the Song of Solomon, while the Middle English Dictionary has both much earlier.^[3][2] The OED notes that the English Prayer Book applied the word only to the Benedicite, though it was often used of the Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and others.^[3] Spenser and others used it for a canto of a poem from 1596 to 1647, and Byron revived it humorously in 1819 for a small canto.^[3][12] Johnson (1755) gives a song, "used generally for a song in scripture".^[13] From the late 18th century it was also slang for a parish clerk, who traditionally led the singing.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1225 – one of the biblical songs used in the liturgy.^[2][5] The OED's first example of this sense is from 1625, in Bacon's Essayes.^[3]
• before 1325 – a song, of the one Moses wrote, in Genesis and Exodus.^[3][2]
• 1435 – the canticles, the Song of Solomon, in Misyn.^[2] The OED's first example is from 1526.^[3]
• 1596 – a canto of a poem, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, until 1647.^[3][12]
• 1785 – slang: a parish clerk, in Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.^[14]
• 1819 – humorously, a small canto, in a letter of Byron.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hymn or song of praise taken from the Bible and used in church services, such as the Magnificat or the Nunc Dimittis.^[6][15][3]
2. A song, poem or hymn, especially a religious one.^[15][6][3]
3. Canticles (plural): the Song of Solomon.^[3][12][2]
4. (obsolete, 1596–1647) A canto of a poem.^[3][12]

Related words

• chant
• canto
• cant
• enchant
• incantation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins