Discant

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A higher melodic line sung or played above a plainchant or other melody ; to hold forth or comment at considerable length on a subject
2. The upper voice set above a fixed melody in early polyphonic music ; to speak or write at great length about something, often in an archaic manner
3. A treble counterpart sung over a plainchant tune in medieval church music ; to dwell on a topic in extended, discursive talk

Etymology: "Discant" is a doublet of "descant," the two forms arriving in English by separate routes from the same Medieval Latin source, "discantus." The Latin term named a musical technique in which a second voice sang a melody above or around a plainsong line, a practice that developed in medieval church music. The Latin word itself was built from "dis-," meaning apart or in two, and "cantus," song, so the core idea is singing in a separate part. English kept both shapes. "Descant" came in through Anglo-Norman and Old French routes and eventually took on the sense of an ornamental melody sung over a tune, while "discant" was borrowed directly from Latin and stayed closer to the musical term's original form. Over time the two words drifted apart in usage, with "descant" becoming the common word and "discant" remaining a rarer, more technical or archaic choice.

Synonyms: descant, discourse, harmony