to incant
- verb
- /ɪnˈkænt/
- Literature
- She would incant specific phrases during her rituals to invoke protection.
- incanted a spell
Examples
-
Incants him to climax with Celtic words.
Fiction book (1991) -
Sounds of lovemaking and an Indian peyote ceremony from the track, an Indian holy man incanting...
Fiction book (1991) -
- I must incant six names of power.
-
After I eat this monk no one will incant to bother you
-
She timidly begins to incant.
Fiction book (1995) -
He had spent long hours incanting and spellcasting.
Fiction book (1998) -
"She incanted her pain in the formula: "Come to thy house, come to thy house, thou pillar!"
Academic text (1996) -
He raised his hands together, holding them above his head and then in front of his chest and incanted: we are secured by the mother and the mother is Nut, the one in the sky, the mother in the sky.
Academic text (2010) -
I bill myself as a widow; I refer to Max as my dearly departed. I incant 'may he rest in peace' because this is one of those cases when a falsehood embodies a greater truth.
Fiction book (2000) -
The wizard began to incant ancient words to summon the spirits.
Synonyms
To sing or say the same words again and again with a steady beat, often with others
To sing or say words in a chant, often prayers
How Ritualistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
incant = in + cant
Although historically analyzable as in- + cant- ('to sing'), these elements are not productive or semantically transparent to typical learners, so the meaning cannot be reliably derived from the visible parts.
Etymology
Incant comes from Latin parts in- 'in' and cantare 'to sing', and it is like the familiar word chant. So, to incant is to 'sing' words over something as part of a spell or ritual.