▪ I. chanter1
(ˈtʃɑːntə(r), ˈtʃæ-)
Forms: 4–6 chauntour, 5 chawntowre, -tour, 5–7 chantour, 5–8 chauntor, 6 chantoure, 4–9 chaunter, 7–9 chantor, 6– chanter.
[ME. and AF. chauntour = OF. chanteor (mod.F. chanteur):—L. cantātōr-em singer. In sense 1, prob. aphetic f. enchanter.]
† 1. An enchanter, a magician. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 243 An chanteor [printed anchanteor] Edwyne adde of Spayne..Þat couþe hym segge of ys dedes al hou yt ssolde go Þoru ys chantement. c 1340 Cursor M. (Fairf.) 5897 Þen calde þe king his chauntours [Cott. enchaunturs]. |
2. One who chants or sings; a singer, musician, songster.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 349 Linus..þe grete chauntour [musicus]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 71 Chawntowre, cantor. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 138 If the chaunter or musicion bee very expert in his arte. 1607 Lingua i. i. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 340 The winged chanters of the wood. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 444 Jove's ethereal rays (resistless fire) The chanter's soul and raptured song inspire. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. II. viii. 411 When the chanter from the minaret announced the death of a Mahometan. 1879 Stainer Music of Bible 158 Musical instruments were used to support the voice of the chanter. |
3. spec. a. One who sings in the choir of a cathedral, etc.; a singing-man, chorister.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xl. 44 With oute the ynner ȝate, treseries of chaunters [1611 chambers of the singers]. 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 16 The Chawntours eche of them [to haue] vj d. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye 34 He wolde do on a cope and stande and synge as a chantoure in myddes of the quier. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., All great chapters have chantors and chaplains to ease and assist the canons..But the word grows obsolete in this sense, and instead thereof we use the word chorister, or singing-man. 1868 Daily News 10 Nov., Dr. Elvey and Mr. Keeton, with the chanters, assembled in the Horseshoe-cloisters. |
b. The precentor, or chief singer in the choir; = cantor.
| [1382 Wyclif Ps. Prol., Asaph, the chauntour of the temple of the Lord.] 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 242/2 The freres assembled at pryme and the chauntor began Jam lucis orto. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 76 b, The chaunter..made the whole quier..to fall streight a laughyng. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 99 Simeon also, the Chanter of Durham. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. (1703) II. 91 The Bill for the utter abolishing..of all Archbishops, Bishops..Prebendaries, and all Chaunters..of any Cathedral, or Collegiate Church. 1751 Chambers Cycl., Chantor is used, by way of excellence, for the præcentor, or master of the choir; which is one of the dignities of the chapter. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1848) 108 note, The Rev. River Jones, Chanter of Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. i. i. 19 There were 4 principal persons in the Chapter of Sarum, namely the dean, Chanter, Chancellor and treasurer. |
4. A priest who sings masses in a chantry.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 268/1 Whan the chantour herd hym he..shewed hym that he erred. a 1697 Awbrey Berkshire iii. 24 (L.) A certain revenue sufficient for a chanter to one chapel. 1813 Coleridge Remorse iii. i, In a chapel on the shore, Shall the chaunters sad and saintly..Doleful masses chaunt for thee. |
5. That pipe of a bagpipe, with finger-holes on which the melody is played. (Also used of similar instruments; also fig. and attrib.)
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Piper 143 Hee can pipe when hee cannot speake: so as, his chanter becomes his interpreter. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. III. 3 Sept., A broad yellow ribband, fixed to the chanter-pipe. 1782 Burns Death Poor Mailie 110 Wha on Ayr your chanters tune. 1794 Stedman Surinam (1813) I. xv. 409 The god Pan playing on his chaunter. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xvi, See the proud pipers on the bow, And mark the gaudy streamers flow From their loud chanters down. 1878 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 123 Its [the bagpipe's] essential characteristics have always been, first, a combination of fixed notes or ‘drones’, with a melody or ‘chaunter’. |
6. hedge-chanter: the Hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis).
| 1865 Morning Star 19 July, A cuckoo..found..in the nest of a hedge-chanter. |
7. slang. (More fully horse-chanter): One who sells horses fraudulently.
| 1836 Dickens Pickw. (1847) 350/1 He was a horse chaunter. 1836 Sir G. Stephen Adv. Search Horse ii. (1841) 36 A systematic chaunter, who will swindle you both out of horse and money. 1845 Thackeray Leg. Rhine ii, He is a cogger of dice, I tell thee—a chanter of horseflesh. |
▪ II. † ˈchanter2 Obs. rare—1.
[ad. F. chantier prop (= It. cantiere, Pg. canteiro):—L. cantērius, canthērius (1) gelding, ass, mule, (2) spar, rafter, prop, (3) as here.]
‘A pole furnished with cross-pieces for supporting the vine, a trellis’.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 531 If so be it [the vine stock] rest vpon one chanter or range of perches. |