descant

English

Alternative forms

• discant (archaic)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus.

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

• 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.
   • 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^[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.

Derived terms

• descanter

 

Further reading

• descant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

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