incantation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incantacioun,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French incantation,^[6][3][4] also spelled incantacion and recorded in the 13th century,^[6][7] from Late Latin incantātiō (“art of enchanting”).^{[7][3][4][8][9]} The Middle English Dictionary names both the Old French and the Latin noun as sources.^[2] The Latin noun is an action noun from Latin incantō (“to chant a magic formula, bewitch”),^[7][9][6] formed with in- (“in, on”) and cantō (“to sing”),^[9][10][11] a frequentative of canō (“to sing”).^[11] The same Latin verb is the source of enchant,^[3][4][9] while chant comes from the simple verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The use of chanted or spoken words to produce a magical effect: 1390, in Gower's Confessio Amantis,^[6][3] the word's only use in Gower.^[12] Barnhart dates the same record before 1393,^[3] and Etymonline says the late 14th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word already meant a spell or an exorcism.^[7] The Middle English Dictionary records three connected senses: magic in general, the practice of reciting a charm, and the formula itself.^[2] A plural, for a single spell, is first recorded in Lydgate's Troy Book (1412–20), and the word widened to any act or ceremony meant to work magic.^[6][8] Johnson (1755) glossed it "Charms uttered by singing; enchantment" and quoted Shakespeare's Henry VI on "ancient incantations".^[13] In modern use it can be applied to words repeated without thought, or used to obscure rather than to explain;^[5][4] Merriam-Webster quotes V. S. Pritchett on "the incantations of repetitive argument".^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1390 – the use of words spoken or chanted to work magic.^[6][3]
• 1412–20 – a magical formula; a spell.^[6][2]
• mid 17th century – incantatory, the adjective.^[8]
• mid 20th century – incantational, the adjective.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ritual recitation of spells or verbal charms to produce a magical effect.^[4][14][5]
2. A formula of words used in such a ritual; a spell: The old healer muttered an incantation over the fever.^[4][14][8]
3. A stock utterance repeated without thought, or a use of words that obscures rather than explains: the party's weary incantations about growth.^[4][5]

Word family

• incantational
• incantatory
• incantator

Related words

• enchant
• enchantment
• chant
• incant
• cant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins