cantus

Learned borrowing from Latin cantus (literally “song, chant”).

cantus

1. (music) Synonym of superius.

• cantus firmus

Perfect passive participle of canō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.tus]

cantus (feminine canta, neuter cantum); first/second-declension participle

1. sung, recited
2. sounded, blew
3. chanted

First/second-declension adjective.

From canō + -tus (forming action nouns).

cantus m (genitive cantūs); fourth declension

1. song, singing
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Vergilius, Georgicon 3.327–330:

     Inde, ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora,
     Et cantu quaerulae rumpent arbusta cicadae,
     Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna jubebo
     currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam;
     […]

     • Translation by James B. Greenough, 1900

       When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,
       And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,
       Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,
       From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:
       […]

2. chant, incantation
3. crowing, crow (sound certain birds make)

Fourth-declension noun.

cantus m (genitive cantī); second declension

1. alternative spelling of canthus (“wheel, carriage tire”)^[1]

Second-declension noun.

• “cantus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cantus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cantus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • instrumental music: nervorum et tibiarum cantus
    
  • vocal and instrumental music: vocum et fidium (nervorum) cantus
    

cantus m pl

1. plural of cantu