canto

canto¹ song, singing

Etymology tree of canto¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin canō

Latin cantus

Spanish canto

From the same root · canto¹

Latin būcina ← canō

Latin canor ← canō

Latin cantiō ← canō

Latin cantō ← canō

Latin cantor ← canō

Latin cantrīx ← canō

Latin carmen ← canō

Latin concinō ← canō

Latin incinō ← canō

Latin luscinia ← canō

Latin recino ← canō

English canto ← cantus

English descant ← cantus

Latin canticum ← cantus

Latin discantus ← cantus

Pronunciation

• /ˈkanto/, [ˈkãn̪.t̪o]^[1]

Forms

canto m (plural cantos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for singing is inherited from Latin cantus (“singing, song”), a noun of action formed from canō (“to sing”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun had the same range, “song, singing, playing”, and also “prophecy” and “spell”.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese canto, Catalan cant, French chant, Italian canto and Romanian cânt.^[7][1][5] In the Romance languages the verb cantar, from the frequentative cantō, replaced canō, while the noun of the old verb survived.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun from 1220–1250, the period of Berceo.^[3][5] In Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa the clergy cantan un rico canto, todo de la creencia “sing a rich chant, all of the Creed”.^[10] The poem of Fernán González (c. 1250) has cantaron en el forno cantos muy convenientes “in the furnace they sang very fitting songs”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the word for singing, for the melody of a piece and for a song or poem that is sung (fazer cantos “to compose songs”).^[12] His Estoria de España already compares a lament to the swan's song: cuemo el canto del cigno that comiença de cantar un canto cuemo dolorido ala sazon que a de morir.^[12] The phrase canto del cisne, a person's last work, rests on this belief that the swan sings before it dies.^[13][14]

In music Covarrubias (1611) distinguishes canto llano “plainsong”, canto de órgano and counterpoint, each with its own art; already in Mexico in 1533 Indians were said to sing plainsong, polyphony and counterpoint.^[15][16] The literary senses came later: in 1817 the Academy gave a short heroic poem and each part of an epic poem, and in 1884 also any lyric composition (los cantos del poeta).^[17][18] The DLE has since added the sense “a tribute, a celebration of something” (un canto a la vida).^[19]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record of the noun.^[3]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa speaks of the Creed sung at Mass.^[10]
• c. 1250 – cantos in the poem of Fernán González.^[11]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España mentions the swan's last song.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin garritus for the song of birds.^[11]
• 1533 – canto llano e de órgano in a report from Mexico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains canto llano, canto de órgano and counterpoint.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. cantus”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. singing: the act of singing.^[19][1]
2. The song or call of an animal, especially a bird: el canto de los mirlos.^[19][14]
3. The art of singing: estudia canto en el conservatorio.^[19][14]
4. A poem, especially a solemn one: canto fúnebre, canto nupcial.^[19]
5. A lyric composition in general.^[19]
6. A canto: each of the parts into which an epic poem is divided.^[19][14]
7. A short heroic poem, named after the parts of an epic.^[19]
8. A celebration or tribute: la novela es un canto a la amistad.^[19]
9. (music) The melodic part that gives a concerted piece its character.^[19]
10. (obsolete) A canticle.^[19]

canto² edge, corner; side

Etymology tree of canto²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin canō

Latin cantus

Spanish canto

From the same root · canto²

Latin būcina ← canō

Latin canor ← canō

Latin cantiō ← canō

Latin cantō ← canō

Latin cantor ← canō

Latin cantrīx ← canō

Latin carmen ← canō

Latin concinō ← canō

Latin incinō ← canō

Latin luscinia ← canō

Latin recino ← canō

English canto ← cantus

English descant ← cantus

Latin canticum ← cantus

Latin discantus ← cantus

Pronunciation

• /ˈkanto/, [ˈkãn̪.t̪o]^[1]

Forms

canto m (plural cantos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for an edge or corner is inherited from Latin cantus (“iron tyre of a wheel”), a rare Latin word of foreign origin, perhaps Celtic.^{[20][3][21][22]} The DLE calls the Latin word Celtic outright.^[21] It appears only from about the beginning of the Christian era, and Quintilian calls it Hispanic or African, which made Corominas think of a Celtiberian word.^[20][23] The meaning passed from “tyre” to “border, rim” and then to “end, side”.^[20][22] The Latin sense survives in cantesa, an iron clasp for mending cracked clogs, in canterla, and in dialect words for the iron band of a wheel in Sanabria and northern Portugal.^[20]

The Latin word is often spelt canthus, under the influence of Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”);^[1] Wiktionary's Spanish entry gives the Greek word as the source and a Celtic origin as less likely; its Latin entry takes the sense “rim of a wheel” from Gaulish *cantos, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”), related to Welsh and Breton words for a rim or circle.^[1] Moliner derives the Spanish word through canthus from the Greek word.^[14] Beekes considers the Greek word Pre-Greek and does not find its comparison with the Celtic word convincing.^[24][1] In Greek the sense “tyre” is recorded only from Diocletian's edict on.^[23][1] Corominas thinks that in Greek and in Germanic the word is also a loan, probably from imperial Latin or early Romance.^[20]

Related Romance words are Portuguese canto, Catalan cantell, French champ (“narrow side”) and Italian canto.^[20][25][26] According to the REW, German Kante came through Low German from the Norman form;^[25] Corominas also takes Dutch kant for a child of the Latin word, since its /k/ cannot be Germanic.^[25][20]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives Berceo's Milagros (st. 3) as the first record, though Lanchetas's glossary reads that line, manaban cada canto fuentes claras corrientes, as “stone”.^[20][27] The Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250) uses it for the corners of a city: tienen en cuatro cantos quatro torres cabdalles “they have four chief towers at four corners”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose canto is the end or side of any place or thing, as in eyebrows arcadas como canto de luna “arched like the edge of the moon”.^[12] The Old Spanish sense “side of a town” was labelled old in Autoridades, which gives the general sense “edge, point, end of something” (canto de mesa, de piedra, de vestido).^[28][11] Nebrija already gives the sense “thickness, depth”, which Corominas explains as the edge of a coin taken as a measure of depth.^[20][29]

The Academy added the back of a knife in 1843, the fore-edge of a book in 1869 and the smaller dimension of a squared timber in 1884.^[30][31][18] The sense “piece of stone” and a game of throwing a stone as far as possible (1843) are counted under this word by the DLE.^[28][30][21] Colombian Spanish uses canto for the lap, and Puerto Rico for a piece or a patch of land.^[32][33][34] In the Philippines it means a street corner, whence Tagalog kanto.^[1]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[3][20]
• c. 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre speaks of the four corners of a city.^[11]
• 1330 – the derivative cantón “corner” appears.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses canto as profunditas and, for the stone, cautes.^[29]
• 1513 – “por el canto de aquellas sierras” in Tierra Firme.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records pared de cal y canto and Guadix's Arabic etymology for the stone.^[35]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the back of a knife.^[30]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from a Celtic kant “edge”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. An end or side of any place or thing.^[21]
2. edge, corner, point: el canto de la puerta.^[21][1]
3. A corner of a building or street.^[21][1]
4. The back of a knife or sword, opposite the blade.^[21]
5. The fore-edge of a book, opposite the spine.^[21]
6. thickness: una tabla de dos dedos de canto.^[21][1]
7. The smaller dimension of a squared timber.^[21]
8. A piece of stone: le tiraron un canto.^[21][1]
9. A game in which the player who throws a stone farthest wins.^[21]
10. (construction) The middle face of an ashlar or brick.^[21]

Word family

• cantón
• cantear
• cantero
• cantillo
• cantil
• descantillar
• cantonera
• acantonar
• decantar
• trascantón