[Goes with CANT v.4 The sb. (if not immediately from the vb.) may be an aphetic form of *encant, or *acant, a. OF. encant, mod.F. encan (Pr. encant, Sp. encanto, It. incanto), in same sense: of disputed origin. The loss of the initial syllable is found also in MHG. and mod.G. gant in same sense.
Diez takes the Romanic words as repr. L. in quantum ‘to how much?’ as the cry of the auctioneer; and with this agree the occas. med.L. form inquantus, Pr. enquant, and OF. inquant, and med.L. vb. inquantare. But no forms of the word appear to go back before the end of the 12th c.; the earliest and ordinary forms in med.L. were incantus (4th decl.), incantum, incantare, accantare, incantator, accantator; and OF. had enchanteur, enchantement (already in Assizes of Jerusalem). These show that the word was then identified with the Lat. incantare, accantare, derivs. of cantare to sing, in the sense of ‘proclaim, cry.’ Cf. Du Cange, under date 1351, ‘quod incantator publicus dicti castri … debeat facere proclamationem,’ and the illustrative ‘jussit ergo Moyses praeconis voce cantari.’ M. Paul Meyer thinks the identification with cantare too old and general to be explained as an error; and that there is more ground for treating the connection with in quantum as a later fancy. Cf. also the mod. Fr. vendre a la criée to sell by auction, and the Sc. and north.Eng. roup, cry, shout, auction, ‘selling of goods by an outcry’ (Phillips, 1678).]
A disposal of property by public competition to the highest bidder; an auction. Chiefly Irish.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4178/4. The Manor … is to be sold by publick Cant to the best Bidder.
1738. Hist. Crt. Excheq., vii. 134. The Goods are set up to Cant.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, ii. 27. Two or three lots of ground were to be let by auction, or, as the phrase goes, by cant.
1834. Southey, Doctor, cxxxix. (1862), 352. The whole of them were set up for sale by public cant in Dublin.
