Etymology Dictionary

CANT (1),  to sing in a whining way; to talk hypocritically.  (L.)   Applied at first, probably, to the whining tone of beggars; used derisively.   'Drinking, lying, cogging, canting;' Ford, The Sun's Darling, Act i. sc. 1.   'A rogue, A very canter I, sir, one that maunds Upon the pad;' Ben Jonson, Staple of News, Act ii.—Lat. cantare, to sing; frequentative of canere, to sing; from the same root with E. hen, q.v.—✔KAN, to sound; Fick, i. 17; Curtius, i. 173.   Der. cant, sb.; cant-er.   From the same source, can-orous, q.v.; cant-icle, q.v.; cant-o, q.v. [†]

CANT (2),  an edge, corner; as verb, to tilt or incline.  (Dutch.)   The sb. is nearly obsolete; we find 'in a cant' = 'in a corner,' in Ben Jonson, Coronation Etnertainment; Works, ed. Gifford, vi. 445 (Nares).   The verb means 'to turn upon an edge,' hence, to tilt, incline; said of a cask.   The verb is derived from the sb.—Du. kant, a border, edge, side, brink, margin, corner. + Dan. and Swed. kant, a border, edge, margin; cf. Dan. kantre, to cant, upset, capsize. + G. kante, a corner.   ¶ Probably distinct words from W. cant, the rim of a circle, Lat. canthus, the tire of a wheel, with which they are commonly compared.   See Canton.   Der. cant-een, q.v.; de-cant-er. [†]

ADDENDA

CANT (1).   The word occurs in the simple sense of 'sing' in the phr. 'cant and chirp;' Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, xiv. 356.   'To cante, to speake' is given as a cant word (with its explanation) in Harman's Caveat, p. 84.   I have pointed out that many cant words came from the Netherlands; so, in this case, we may derive cant from Walloon canter, to sing (Sigart), rather than from Lat. cantare directly.

CANT (2).   The G. kante was merely borrowed from the Low G., and is not an independent word; this accounts for there being no change in the spelling (from t to z); see Weigand.   See further under Canton.