discant

American  

[dis-kant, dis-kant] / ˈdɪs kænt, dɪsˈkænt /

noun

1. Music. Also discantus a 13th-century polyphonic style with strict mensural meter in all the voice parts, in contrast to the metrically free organum of the period.

2. descant.

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verb (used without object)

1. descant.

discant British  

noun

1. a variant of descant descant descant

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verb

1. a variant of descant descant descant

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• discanter
  noun

Etymology

Origin of discant

1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin discanthus; see descant

Example Sentences

To hear him discant you would have thought his wings were sprouting.

From A Transient Guest and Other Episodes by Saltus, Edgar

But after describing all the joys of heaven, Brother Hans comes to the conclusion that a man knows about as much of celestial matters as an ox knows of discant singing.

From The Evolution of Love by Schleussner, Ellie

Seu viri curas pia nupta mulcet, Seu fovet mater sobolem benigna, Sive cum libris novitate pascet Sedula mentem; Sit memor nostri, fideique merces, Stet fides constans, meritoque blandum Thraliae discant resonare nomen Littora Skiae.

From Life of Johnson, Volume 5 Tour to the Hebrides (1773) and Journey into North Wales (1774) by Boswell, James

Eodem exemplo, vos quoque insidias detegite, et populos vestrae solicitudini commissos docete, quae recta sunt, ut a laqueis, quos ante pedes struunt, declinare discant, ne in transversum agantur.

From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, March 1865 by Various

Praetorius22 designates the transverse flute as “Flauta traversa’ Querpfeiff” and “Querfl�t,” and gives the pitch of the bass in the tenor and alto in and the discant in as varieties then in use.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various