descant

English

Alternative forms

• discant (archaic)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛskænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Noun

descant (plural descants)

1. A lengthy discourse on a subject.
   • Template:RQ:De Quincey Rhetoric

     Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant!

2. (music) A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme.

Translations

counterpoint melody

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Diskant (de) m

Verb

descant (third-person singular simple present descants, present participle descanting, simple past and past participle descanted)

1. (intransitive) To discuss at length.
   • 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, volume 1, pages 128-129:

     but shun the establishment of a bachelor who has hung a pendulum between temptation and prudence till the age of———but of all subjects, age is the one on which it is most invidious to descant.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[1]:

     “… This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, …”

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 121

     Involving some interesting, intellectual trips, she was descanting lightly to right and left.

2. (intransitive, music) To sing or play a descant.

Further reading

• descant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cedants, dancest, decants, scanted, stanced