Cant
language term for jargon or argot of a group
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group. It may also be called a cryptolect, argot, pseudo-language, anti-language or secret language. Each term differs slightly in meaning; their uses are inconsistent.
Etymology
There are two main schools of thought on the origin of the word cant:
In linguistics, the derivation is normally seen to be from the Irish word caint (older spelling cainnt), "speech, talk", or Scottish Gaelic cainnt. It is seen to have derived amongst the itinerant groups of people in Ireland and Scotland, who hailed from both Irish/Scottish Gaelic and English-speaking backgrounds, ultimately developing as various creole languages. However, the various types of cant (Scottish/Irish) are mutually unintelligible. The Irish creole variant is termed "the cant". Its speakers from the Irish Traveller community know it as Gammon, while the linguistic community identifies it as shelta.
Outside Gaelic circles, the derivation is typically seen to be from Latin cantāre, 'to sing', via Norman French canter. Within this derivation, the history of the word is seen to have referred to the chanting of friars initially, used disparagingly some time between the 12th and 15th centuries.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cant” as language term for jargon or argot of a group. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33005. The Library of Congress control number is sh85019776. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.