enchanter

English

Alternative forms

• enchantor, inchantor, enchantour, enchauntour, inchanter (all obsolete)
• enchauntor (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From Middle English enchantour, from Old French enchanteor (Modern French enchanteur), from Latin incantātor (“enchanter; spellcaster; conjurer”), from incantāre (“to sing, to consecrate with spells”). Doublet of incantator. Equivalent to enchant +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtʃɑːntə/, /ənˈtʃɑːntə/, /ɛnˈtʃɑːntə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈt͡ʃæntɚ/, /ɛnˈt͡ʃæntɚ/

Noun

enchanter (plural enchanters, feminine enchantress)

1. One who enchants or delights.
   • 1991 February 11, “Critics' Voices”, in Time:

     Robert Morse brings back to life the author, wit, bon vivant, self-pitier and true enchanter that was Truman Capote in this Tony-winning one-man performance […]

2. A spellcaster, conjurer, wizard, sorcerer or soothsayer who specializes in enchantments.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book One, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006, Canto VII, stanza 35, p. 113,

     No magicke arts hereof had any might, / Nor bloody wordes of bold Enchaunters call, / But all that was not such, as seemd in sight, / Before that shield did fade, and suddeine fall:

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XI:

     He was indeed as bitter an enemy to the savage authority too often exercised by husbands and fathers, over the young and lovely of the other sex, as ever knight-errant was to the barbarous power of enchanters; nay, to say truth, I have often suspected that those very enchanters with which romance everywhere abounds were in reality no other than the husbands of those days; and matrimony itself was, perhaps, the enchanted castle in which the nymphs were said to be confined.

   • 1810, J[ohn] Stagg, “Arthur’s Cave. A Legendary Tale.”, in The Minstrel of the North: Or, Cumbrian Legends. […], London: Printed by Hamblin and Seyfang, […], for the author, and sold by J. Blacklock, […], →OCLC, page 105:

     [I]n the reign of Henry the Second, a body happening, by chance, to be dug up near Glastonbury Abbey, without any symptoms of putrefaction or decay, the Welch, the descendants of the Ancient Britons, tenacious of the dignity and reputation of that illustrious hero [King Arthur], vainly supposed it could be no other than the body of their justly-boasted Pen-Dragon; and that he had been immured in that sepulchre by the spells of some powerful and implacable inchanter.

   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind‎^[1], lines 2–3:

     Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead / Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four‎^[2], Part One, Chapter 1:

     […] Goldstein […] seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization.

Derived terms

• enchanter's nightshade

Translations

A spellcaster, conjurer, wizard, sorcerer or soothsayer

• Bulgarian: чародей (bg) m (čarodej), магьосник (bg) m (magjosnik)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魔法師／魔法师 (zh) (mófǎshī)

• French: enchanteur (fr) m, enchanteuse (fr) f
• Galician: encantador m, encantadora f
• German: Zauberer (de) m, Zaubererin f
• Greek:

  Ancient: βάσκανος m (báskanos)

• Indonesian: ahli sihir (id), tukang sihir
• Japanese: 魔法使い (ja) (まほうつかい, mahōtsukai), 魔法師 (まほうし, mahōshi)
• Latin: incantator m
• Macedonian: ма́ѓепсник m (máǵepsnik), во́лшебник m (vólšebnik)
• Middle English: enchauntour
• Polish: czarodziej (pl) m, czarownik (pl) m
• Romanian: răpuitor (ro) m
• Russian: чароде́й (ru) m (čarodéj), чароде́йка (ru) f (čarodéjka), волше́бник (ru) m (volšébnik), волше́бница (ru) f (volšébnica), колду́н (ru) m (koldún), колду́нья (ru) f (koldúnʹja)
• Serbo-Croatian: čaròbnjāk (sh) m
• Swedish: besvärjare (sv) c, trollkarl (sv) c
• Welsh: swynwr m, swynydd m

Anagrams

• re-enchant, reenchant

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French enchanter, probably borrowed from Latin incantāre. Doublet of incanter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

enchanter

1. (transitive) to enchant

Conjugation

Conjugation of enchanter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	enchanter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	enchantant /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		enchanté /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	enchante /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchantes /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchante /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchantons /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɔ̃/	enchantez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.te/	enchantent /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/
	imperfect	enchantais /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɛ/	enchantais /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɛ/	enchantait /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɛ/	enchantions /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tjɔ̃/	enchantiez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tje/	enchantaient /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɛ/
	past historic2	enchantai /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.te/	enchantas /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.ta/	enchanta /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.ta/	enchantâmes /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tam/	enchantâtes /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tat/	enchantèrent /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɛʁ/
	future	enchanterai /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁe/	enchanteras /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁa/	enchantera /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁa/	enchanterons /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɔ̃/	enchanterez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁe/	enchanteront /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	enchanterais /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɛ/	enchanterais /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɛ/	enchanterait /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɛ/	enchanterions /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	enchanteriez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tə.ʁje/	enchanteraient /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	enchante /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchantes /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchante /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	enchantions /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tjɔ̃/	enchantiez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tje/	enchantent /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/
	imperfect2	enchantasse /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tas/	enchantasses /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tas/	enchantât /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.ta/	enchantassions /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/	enchantassiez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.ta.sje/	enchantassent /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	enchante /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃t/	—	enchantons /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.tɔ̃/	enchantez /ɑ̃.ʃɑ̃.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• enchanté
• enchantement
• enchanteur, enchanteresse

Related terms

• chanter

Further reading

• “enchanter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

enchanter

1. Alternative form of enchauntour

Old French

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Latin incantāre, present active infinitive of incantō, from cantus (“song; chant”). Compare chant, chanter, etc.

Verb

enchanter

1. to enchant (to put under the power of an enchantment)
   • c. 1261, Rutebeuf, Ci commence le miracle de Théophile

     Sui trop fort enchantez.

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ts, *-tt are modified to z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of enchanter (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		enchanter			avoir enchanté
gerund		en enchantant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		enchantant
past participle		enchanté
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	enchant	enchantes	enchante	enchantons	enchantez	enchantent
	imperfect	enchantoie, enchanteie, enchantoe, enchanteve	enchantoies, enchanteies, enchantoes, enchanteves	enchantoit, enchanteit, enchantot, enchanteve	enchantiiens, enchantiens	enchantiiez, enchantiez	enchantoient, enchanteient, enchantoent, enchantevent
	preterite	enchantai	enchantas	enchanta	enchantames	enchantastes	enchanterent
	future	enchanterai	enchanteras	enchantera	enchanterons	enchanteroiz, enchantereiz, enchanterez	enchanteront
	conditional	enchanteroie, enchantereie	enchanteroies, enchantereies	enchanteroit, enchantereit	enchanteriiens, enchanteriens	enchanteriiez, enchanteriez	enchanteroient, enchantereient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	enchant	enchanz	enchant	enchantons	enchantez	enchantent
	imperfect	enchantasse	enchantasses	enchantast	enchantissons, enchantissiens	enchantissoiz, enchantissez, enchantissiez	enchantassent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	enchante	—	enchantons	enchantez	—

Derived terms

• enchantement

Related terms

• chanter

Descendants

• → Middle English: enchaunten, enchaunte, enchanten, enchant
  • English: enchant
  • Scots: enchant
• French: enchanter