descant

English

Alternative forms

• discant (archaic)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus. Doublet of discant.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛskænt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænt

Noun

descant (plural descants)

1. A lengthy discourse on a subject.
   • 1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine:

     Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant!

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

Derived terms

• descantist
• descant recorder

Translations

counterpoint melody

• 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.
   • 1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Samaritans.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book II [Of the Hebrew Nation and Religion from the Beginning thereof to Our Time], page 130:

     […] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 128–129:

     [B]ut 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:

     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, page 121:

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

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

Derived terms

• descanter

Further reading

• descant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cedants, decants, T dances, dancest, scanted, T-dances, stanced