descant
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word descant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word descant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say descant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word descant you have here. The definition of the word descant will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofdescant, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus.
Pronunciation
Noun
descant (plural descants)
- 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!
- (music) A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
descant (third-person singular simple present descants, present participle descanting, simple past and past participle descanted)
- (intransitive) To discuss at length.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, 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:
- “… 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.
- (intransitive, music) To sing or play a descant.
