descant

English

Alternative forms

discant (archaic)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛskænt/
Rhymes: -ænt

Noun

descant (plural descants)

A lengthy discourse on a subject.
- 1828, Thomas De Quincey, Elements of Rhetoric (published in Blackwood's Magazine)
  Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant!
(music) A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme.

Translations

counterpoint melody

German: Diskant (de) m

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 24531354, 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.

Anagrams

cedants, dancest, decants, scanted, stanced