cantus

Forms

cantus m (genitive cantūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin canō (“to sing”) + -tus, an action noun.^[2][1] Canō continues Proto-Italic *kanō, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (“to sing”).^[1] Isidore of Seville defines it as an inflection of the voice, as opposed to a plain sound.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livius Andronicus, in a tragedy, has the snub-nosed flock of Nereus playing to song.^[2] Köbler dates Livius Andronicus 280/260–before 200 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant singing and song, with or without instruments, and Lewis & Short note that cantus is the performance and carmen properly the content of a song, citing Cicero.^[2][5] Cicero uses it of the Sirens' song and of a certain veiled singing tone in speech.^[5] Poets used it of poetry, as Virgil calling on the Muses.^[2]

It also meant the chanting of spells, as Lucilius of the Marsian snake-charmer, the song or cry of birds, and the music of instruments.^[2][6] In Christian Latin it was liturgical chant, and medieval music theory used it of a melody and a mode of composition.^[7][8] A different word cantus, a spelling of canthus “iron tyre of a wheel”, is a Greek loan.^[1][9] It survives in Italian canto, French chant and Spanish canto.^[1] English descant comes from Medieval Latin discantus, from it, about 1400, and chant as a noun partly from French chant in the 1670s.^[10]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it of song.^[2][4]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a snake charmer's spell.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the song of birds and of instrumental music.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of poetry.^[2][4]
• c. 1400 – English descant is recorded.^[10]
• 1670s – English chant is recorded as a noun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Singing, song.^[2][1]
2. (poetic) poetry.^[2]
3. An incantation, spell.^[2][1]
4. The song or cry of birds; crowing.^[2][1]
5. The music of instruments.^[2]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Liturgical chant.^[7]

Word family

• canticus
• cantilō
• tubocantius
• canticum
• gallicantus

Related words

• carmen
• English descant
• English chant

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com