cantante

Forms

cantante m or f by sense (plural cantantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish cantar + -nte, with the suffix of the old active participle.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead derives it from Latin cantāns, the present participle of cantō (“to sing”), from which cantar descends.^[1][5] The Diccionario de Autoridades already called it the active participle of the verb and referred it to the Latin participle.^[6] Echegaray compared Italian cantante and French chantant.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest records are in the Aragonese works of Juan Fernández de Heredia: the Historia troyana (1376–1396) speaks of the songs de los cantantes “of the singers”, and his Gran crónica de España (1385) of hombres bien cantantes “men who sing well”.^[8] Corominas dates the word only from 1623.^[9]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the word was mainly a participle or adjective, “who sings”.^[6][10] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as one who sings, or something that creaks and makes an unpleasant noise.^[6] Domínguez in 1846 and Gaspar y Roig in 1853 recorded the noun for a person who sings, in particular the artists who sing in operas.^[11][12] The Academy added the noun “professional singer, male or female” in 1869.^[13] Today it is above all the ordinary word for a singer, especially a professional one.^[2][14] The DLE also records the set phrases bajo cantante and café cantante.^[2]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Historia troyana has los cantantes “the singers”.^[8]
• 1623 – the first record that Corominas gives.^[9]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters it as the active participle of cantar.^[6]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the noun “professional singer”.^[13]
• 1897 – first record from the Americas, in Colombia.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That sings.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A singer, especially one who sings professionally: Su hermana es cantante de ópera.^[2][14][1]

Related words

• cantor
• canto
• cantata

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cantante
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cantante
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cantar
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 122
7. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 89
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cantante
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cantar
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 135
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 329
12. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 8
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 144
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cantante
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cantante