cant2 (kant)

[First at the end of the 16th century; usually referred to L. cant are (> ult. E. chant, q. v.), sing (in form a freq. of canere, pp. cantus, sing, from a root represented in E. by the noun hen, q. v.), in eccl. use (ML.) also perform ma or divine service, and, as a noun, an anniversary service for the dead, alms, esp. when given as an anniversary observance (see cant2, n. and a.). The word cant may thus have become a ociated with beggars; but there may have been also an allusion to a perfunctory performance of divine service, and hence a hypocritical use of religious phrases.] I. in trans. 1. To speak with a whining voice or in an affected or a umed tone; a ume a particular tone and manner of speaking for the purpose of exciting compa ion, as in begging; hence, to beg. You are resolved to cant , then? where, Savil, Shall your scene lie? Beau , and Fl ., Scornful Lady, v. 3. 2. To make pharisaical, hypocritical, or whining pretensions to goodne ; affect piety without sincerity; sham holine . I could not cant of creed or prayer. Scott , Rokeby, i. 18. 3. To talk in a certain special jargon; use the words and phraseology peculiar to a particular sect, party, profe ion, and the like. A merry Greek, and cants in Latin comely. B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2. The Doctor here, When he disc ours eth of di ection, Of vena cava and of vena porta, Of miseraics and the mesenterium, What does he else but cant ? B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1. II. trans. To use as a conventional phraseology or jargon. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 1. canstowt. An old abbreviation of canst thou . cant1 (kant), n. [= D. kant , border, edge, side, brink, margin, corner, = OFries. kant (in comp.), side, = MLG. kant , kante , LG. kante (> G. kante mod. Icel. kantr = Dan. Sw. kant ), border, edge, margin, prob. cant , corner, angle, = Sp. Pg. It. canto , side, edge, corner, angle, cantus , side, corner. Of uncertain and prob. various origin: (1) in part, like W. cant , the rim of a circle, canthus , ML.can tus, contus, the tire of a wheel (in ML. also explained as the nave or spokes of a wheel, in L. also poet. a wheel); cf. Gr. κανθός , the felly of a wheel (a late word, perhaps due to the L., which was, according to Quintilian, a barbarous A whining or singing manner of speech; spe Is it so difficult for a man to cant some one or more of the Cantab. cifically, the whining speech of beggars, as in asking alms.-2. The language or jargon spoken by gipsies, thieves, profe ional beggars, or the like, and containing many words different from ordinary English; a kind of slang or argot.-3. The words and phrases peculiar to or characteristic of a sect, party, or profe ion; the dialect of a cla , sect, or set of people: used in an unfavorable sense. Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, the cant of criticism is the most tormenting. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iii. 12. The cant of party, school, and sect Provoked at times his honest scorn. Whittier, My Namesake. 4. A pretentious or insincere a umption, in speech, of a religious character; an ostentatious or insincere use of solemn or religious phraseology. That he [Richard Cromwell] was a good man, he evinced by proofs more satisfactory than deep groans or long sermons, by humility and suavity when he was at the height of human greatne , and by cheerful resignation under cruel wrongs and misfortunes; but the cant then common in every guard-room gave him a disgust which he had not always the prudence to conceal. Macaulay , Hist. Eng., i. Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace. Whittier, Daniel Neall. IMG:content-3056.png:[graphic] or Hence - 5. Any Any insincerity or conventionality in speech, especially insincere a umption conventional pretense of enthusiasm for high thoughts or aims. But enthusiasm, once cold, can never be warmed over into anything better than cant . Lowell, Study Windows, p. 157. Syn. 2 and 3. Cant , Slang, Colloquialism . Cant be longs to a cla ; slang to no one cla , except where it is specified: as, college slang ; parliamentary slang . Slang is generally over-vivid in metaphor and threadbare from use, and is often vulgar or ungrammatical; cant may be correct, but unintelligible to those outside of the cla concerned. Cant has also the meaning of insincere or conventional use of religious or other set phrases, as above. A colloquialism is simply an expre ion that belongs to common conversation, but is considered too homely for refined speech or for writing. The Cant or flash language, or thieves' jargon, was scarcely known even by name in the United States until... some forty years ago. Science , V. 380. The use of slang , or cheap generic terms, as a substitute for differentiated specific expre ions, is at once a sign and a cause of mental atrophy. O. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 275. Colloquialisms have a place in certain departments of literature, namely, familiar and humorous writing, but in grave compositions they are objectionable. J. De Mille , Rhetoric, § 270. II. a . Of the nature of cant or jargon. The affectation of some late authors to introduce and multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any language. Swift.