different between language vs cant

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?ng?gw?j, IPA^(key): /?læ??w?d??/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [?le???w?d??]
• Hyphenation: lan?guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn???wéh?s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ?eþ?ode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ?ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. (countable, uncountable, figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor ?ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages ?ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • ? English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lan??ad???/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• ? Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • ? English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• ? Old Spanish: lenguage

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?nt, IPA^(key): /kænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt
• Homophone: can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in anglicized pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Latin cant? probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.

Noun

cant (usually uncountable, plural cants)

1. (countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

   • 1836, Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown, page 65

2. (countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

3. A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.
4. (uncountable, derogatory) Empty, hypocritical talk.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 46:

     ... he knew very well that if they thought him clever they were being taken in, but it pleased him to have been able to take them in, and he tried to do so still further; he was therefore a good deal on the look-out for cants that he could catch and apply in season, and might have done himself some mischief thus if he had not been ready to throw over any cant as soon as he had come across another more nearly to his fancy ...

5. (uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
6. (countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name (or, less often, some attribute or function) of the bearer, canting arms.
7. (obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
2. (intransitive) To speak in set phrases.
3. (intransitive) To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
4. (intransitive, heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
5. (obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.

See also

• jargon
• sociolect

Etymology 2

From Middle English cant (“edge, brink”), from Middle Dutch cant (“point, side, edge”) (Modern Dutch kant (“side, edge”)), ultimately of Celtic or Latin origin. Related to Medieval Latin cantus (“corner, side”), from Latin canthus.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

1. (obsolete) Side, edge, corner, niche.
2. Slope, the angle at which something is set.
3. A corner (of a building).

   Synonym: corner

4. An outer or external angle.
5. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.

   Synonyms: bevel, slope, tilt

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

6. A movement or throw that overturns something.
   • 1830, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, volume 3, page 621

     It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant, or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she may go to relieve.

7. A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so given.

8. (coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

9. A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

10. (nautical) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.

Derived terms

• cantrail

Related terms

• cantilever

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive) To set (something) at an angle.

   to cant a cask; to cant a ship

2. (transitive) To give a sudden turn or new direction to.

   to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football

3. (transitive) To bevel an edge or corner.
4. (transitive) To overturn so that the contents are emptied.

Translations

Etymology 3

Unknown, but compare Provençal cantel (“corner, piece”) or Old Northern French cantel (“piece broken off”). The verb is attested from the 15th century, and the noun from the 16th.

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To divide or parcel out.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

1. (regional, forestry) A parcel, a division.

Etymology 4

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant. Compare Dutch kant (“neat, clever”). Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Alternative forms

• kant

Adjective

cant (not comparable)

1. (Britain, dialect) Lively, lusty.

References

Further reading

• Cant (language) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• NCTA, T-Can

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan cant, from Latin cantus.

Noun

cant m (plural cants)

1. song

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?kant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?kan/

Synonyms

• cançó

Related terms

• cantar

Italian

Noun

cant m (invariable)

1. Apocopic form of canto

Middle English

Etymology

Possibly from Middle Low German *kant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/

Adjective

cant

1. (Scotland, Northern England) bold, lively, cant
   • c. 1340, Cursor Mundi, Cotton Vespasian A iii, lines 8943-46:

     Iuus þat war sa cant and kene, / Quen þai had þis meracles sene, / þai drou it þen and mad a brig / Ouer a litel burn to lig

     Jews who were so bold and ready, when they had seen this miracle, pulled it out and made a bridge over a little stream to lie

Descendants

• English: cant (dialectal)
• Scots: cant

Romanian

Etymology

From German Kante.

Noun

cant n (plural canturi)

1. edge

Declension

Scots

Alternative forms

• kant

Etymology

From Middle English cant (“bold, lively”)

Adjective

cant

1. (Middle Scots) lively
   • 1513, Gavin Douglas (translator), Virgil (author), Aeneid:

     The cadgyar callis furth his capill with crakkis wail cant

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *kant, from Proto-Celtic *kantom, from Proto-Indo-European *?m?tóm.

Numeral

cant (ordinal canfed)

1. one hundred

Usage notes

• Preceding a noun, cant takes the form can.
• Cardinals following cant employ a (“and”) as a connecting word, which stands in contrast to ordinals after canfed, which use wedi'r (“past the, after the”), e.g. cant ac un (“one hundred and one”) but cyntaf wedi'r cant (“hundred-and-first”).

Derived terms

• hanner cant (“fifty”)
• cant a hanner (“one hundred and fifty”)
• dau gant (“two hundred”)
• tri chant (“three hundred”)
• pum cant (“five hundred”)

Noun

cant m (plural cannoedd)

1. hundred
2. century

Etymology 2

Middle Welsh, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”). Related to Breton kant (“circle”), Old Irish cétad (“round seat”).

Noun

cant m (plural cantau)

1. hoop
2. rim

Mutation

References

• Definition from the BBC
• Hoops, Johannes (1973): Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 16, p. 445