Cant

Word of the Day for Friday, March 2, 2012

cant \kant\, verb:

1. To talk hypocritically.
2. To speak in the whining or singsong tone of a beggar; beg.

noun:
1. Insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
2. The private language of the underworld.
3. The phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.
4. Whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.

I don't deny but that may sooner teach a Man to Cant and talk Gibberish, or use fair, smooth, formal Phrases, and religious Words.
-- Richard Ward and Sarah Hutton, The Life of Henry More

A philanthropist by nature, he is not one of "those dreamers" who hate all that will not aid their one pet scheme, and "cant" about a general brotherhood which exempts them from particular charity.
-- Robert Alfred Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics

Cant comes from the same Latin word as chant, the Latin word for song, cantus. The sense of "insincere talk" arose in the early 1700s.

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/