Etymograph

English

cant

Cant (jargon) comes from Latin cantō ‘to sing, chant’, probably via Old Northern French canter, from canō ‘to sing’, ultimately from PIE *keh₂n-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*keh₂n-1‘to sing’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kh₂n-é-ti1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kanō1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcanō2‘to sing’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcantō3‘to sing, chant’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1607–1611cant3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin cano
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin canto
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English cant
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1607–1611, Iohn Fletcher: “[I]f he proue not yet / The cunningſt, ranckeſt…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*keh₂n-Wiktionary, Latin cano‘to sing’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kh₂n-é-tiWiktionary, Latin canoreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kanōWiktionary, Latin canoreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcanōWiktionary, Latin canto‘to sing’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcantōWiktionary, English cant‘to sing, chant’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1607–1611cantWiktionary, English cant. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1607–1611, Iohn Fletcher: “[I]f he proue not yet / The cunningſt, ranckeſt…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *kanō ‘to sing’

enchanter, 44 more

through Latin canō ‘sing’

accent, incentive, chanting, bazooka, enchantment, enchant, chanson, chantry, chanter, 45 more

through Latin cantō ‘synonym of canō’

chant, shanty, incantation, 11 more

Another origin of cant

  1. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500cant‘point, side, edge’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cant‘edge, brink’
  3. Englishtodaycant

Another origin of cant

  1. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600*kantuncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cant‘bold, lively, cant’
  3. Englishtodaycant

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (‘edge, rim’), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Today it means

noun An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cant”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin cano, Latin canto. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- / cant

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