cantar

Forms

cantar (first-person singular present canto, first-person singular preterite canté, past participle cantado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), the frequentative of canō (“to sing”).^[2][3][4][1] The noun cantar “song” is the infinitive used as a noun, recorded from the Cantar de mio Cid on.^[3][5][6]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese cantar, Galician cantar, Catalan cantar, Occitan cantar, French chanter, Italian cantare and Romanian cânta.^[7][8][1]

The simple Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kan-e- and Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”), with cognates in Old Irish cainid (“sings”) and Welsh canu (“to sing”).^[9] Wiktionary names English chant as a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the verb from the Glosas de Silos of the second half of the 10th century.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) nos cante el gallo “before the cock crows for us” means “before dawn”, and the verb is also used transitively for a priest singing Mass: la missa les cantava.^[10][11] The noun appears in the same poem for each of the long sections into which the minstrels divided the sung epic (line 2276).^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb of people and, by extension, of birds and other animals, and for celebrating Mass.^[12][13] Berceo also has it for “to foretell, announce” (Esto yo te lo canto).^[13] The chronicles cite the cantares de gesta, the epic songs of the minstrels, as a source for history, and Alfonso X's prose also has cantares de llantos “laments”.^[14][10]

In the slang of the 16th and 17th centuries cantar meant “to confess” under torture: Covarrubias explains cantar en el potro, and Hidalgo's glossary of 1609 has “to reveal something”.^[15][16] Today the colloquial sense is still “to confess, inform on someone”.^[17][1] Covarrubias also lists proverbs: Quien canta, sus males espanta “he who sings scares away his troubles”, Cantar mal y porfiar for the foolish and obstinate, and Cada gallo canta en su muladar.^[15] Autoridades defines the noun as a ballad or verses made to be sung, and also as satirical verses against someone.^[18]

Modern colloquial Spanish has added “to stink” (of feet or armpits), “to show clear signs of something” and “to attract attention”, and in football cantar is said of a goalkeeper's obvious blunder.^[4][1] Cantarlas claras is to speak one's mind bluntly, and Garzón recorded cantarle claro a uno in the same sense in Argentina.^[4][19]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas de Silos.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the verb and the noun cantar.^[10][3]
• 1220–1250 – first records of cántico, cantilena and canto.^[3]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Santo Domingo: Bien leíe, e cantaba sin ninguna pereza.^[12]
• 1284–1345 – the Estoria de España cites what the cantares de las gestas say.^[14]
• 1330 – first record of encantar “to bewitch”, explained by the chanted spells of sorcerers.^[3]
• 1541 – Michoacán: the people honour their gods con solos los cantares.^[20]
• 1571 – first record of cantaleta, a noisy song to mock someone.^[3]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's glossary of thieves' slang gives cantar as “to reveal”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records cantar en el potro and several proverbs.^[15]
• 1623 – first record of cantante.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy defines the noun as a short poem set to a popular tune such as the fandango or the jota.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To sing: to make melodious sounds with the voice, with or without words.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) Of birds and some other animals: to sing, chirp or croak.^[4]
3. (intransitive) Of some devices: to make a repeated noise, as a cart's axles.^[4]
4. (intransitive, colloquial) Of parts of the body: to stink: Le cantaban los pies.^[4][1]
5. (intransitive, colloquial) To show clear signs of something; to be conspicuous.^[4]
6. (intransitive, nautical) To call out a warning; to sound the whistle as a command; to sing a saloma.^[4]
7. (intransitive, colloquial; football) Of a player, especially the goalkeeper: to make an obvious mistake in defence.^[4]
8. (transitive) To perform a piece of music with the voice: cantar un bolero.^[4][1]
9. (transitive, also intransitive) To celebrate something or praise someone in verse.^[4]
10. (transitive) To announce something aloud in a chanting voice, such as a lottery number or a price.^[4][22]
11. (colloquial) To confess, to inform on someone.^[17][23]

Noun

1. A copla or short poem set to music or to a popular tune such as the fandango or the jota.^[24][4][1]
2. (literature) An old poetic composition, a canción;^[24][6] cantar de gesta, a long medieval poem telling the deeds of historical or legendary heroes, as the Cantar de mio Cid.^[24][6]
3. A work song, a kind of saloma sung by labourers.^[24][1]

Word family

• canta
• cantada
• cantador
• cantante
• cantarín
• cante
• canturrear
• discantar
• cantaleta
• cantable

Related words

• canción
• cantaor
• cántico
• cantiga
• canto
• cantor
• encantar
• chantaje
• Latin canō
• Portuguese cantar

Usage notes

El Cantar de los Cantares is the Song of Songs.^[21][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 812
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cantar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
5. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cantar
6. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cantar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cantare
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom, p. s.v. */ˈkant-a-/
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 120
11. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 96
12. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 608
13. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 208
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cantar
15. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 415
16. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 166
17. ^ a b León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. cantar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 120
19. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 91
20. ^ 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. cantar
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 201
22. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 250
23. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. cantar
24. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cantar