Also 5 quante, (qv-), whante, 9 quont. [? ad. L. contus (Gr. κοντός) boat-pole. Current in E. Anglia and Kent (in the latter also ‘a young oak-sapling, a walking-stick’): the northern equivalent is KENT sb.1] A pole for propelling a boat, esp. one with a flat cap to prevent it sinking in the mud, used by bargemen on the east coast.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 418/2. Quante, or sprete, rodde…, contus. Ibid., 523/2. Whante, or qvante.
1687. Shadwell, Juvenal, 38. Contus signifies a Quant or Sprett, with which they shove Boats.
1847–78. in Halliwell.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, iv. 25. When the wind fails, the men betake themselves to the ‘quant,’ which is a long slender pole with a knob at one end and a spike and shoulder at the other.
1893. H. M. Doughty, Wherry in Wendish Lands, 167. To get all sail off her, and undertake a tough job with the quants.
