incant

English

The dead Gróa incants before her son Svipdagr in The Elder or Poetic Edda

Etymology

From Latin incantō. Doublet of enchant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋˈkænt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

incant (third-person singular simple present incants, present participle incanting, simple past and past participle incanted)

1. (rare) To state solemnly, to chant.
2. To recite an incantation.
   • 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 378:

     They now remember a tall man wrapped in a cloak [...] incanting to himself as he crossed the road.

   • 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     “Did you speak, child?” she whispered, as if she was a witch incanting a spell.

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂n- (0 c, 24 e)

Anagrams

• Cantin, cannit, tannic, tin can