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Canting in Sinitic (and other) languages

Language Log 2025-11-28

This is not about what you think it may be. 

Whenever I see the word "canting", as it has been appearing in recent Language Log posts, I can't help but pronounce it as pinyin (MSM) cāntīng 餐廳 ("canteen; cafeteria; dining hall; dining room; restaurant").  The two morphosyllables respectively mean "dining" and "hall".

(Standard)
(Pinyin): cāntīng
(Zhuyin): ㄘㄢ ㄊㄧㄥ

(Dungan, Cyrillic and Wiktionary): цантин (cantin, I-I)

(Wiktionary; see Appendix for more detailed notes in various Sinitic topolects)

The fact that MSM cāntīng means exactly the same thing as English "canteen" adds to the befuddlement, but, as we shall see in the following paragraphs, the two words (cāntīng and "canting") are completely unrelated and mean two entirely different things.

English "canting", as we've been discussing it in the past week or so, means:

1560s, "practice of using thieves' cant," verbal noun from cant (v.1).

—–

cant (v.1)

1560s, "to speak in a whining voice," from cant (n.1). From c. 1600 as "to speak in the jargon of thieves and vagabonds;" 1670s as "talk hypocritically in pompous phraseology."

(etymonline)

I first learned about the English word in the expression "thieves' cant":

Thieves' cant (also known as thieves' argot, rogues' cant, or peddler's French) is a cant, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries. It is now mostly obsolete and used in literature and fantasy role-playing, although individual terms continue to be used in the criminal subcultures of Britain and the United States.

Cant is a common feature of rogue literature of the Elizabethan era in England, in both pamphlets and theatre. It was claimed by Samuel Rid to have been devised around 1530 by two vagabond leaders – Giles Hather, of the "Egyptians", and Cock Lorell, of the "Quartern of Knaves" – at The Devil's Arse, a cave in Derbyshire, "to the end that their cozenings, knaveries and villainies might not so easily be perceived and known".

(Wikipedia — with much talk of canting [including dictionaries] and Romany language)

There are other English "canting" terms, e.g.:

in American English
 
(ˈkæntɪŋ)
 
adjective
affectedly or hypocritically pious or righteous
a canting social reformer

(Collins)

Still other meanings for "cant":

cant1 /kænt/    n. [uncountable]     insincere, false, or hypocritical statements:  a lot of pretentious cant. cant2 /kænt/   n.      [countable]     a sudden movement that tilts or overturns a thing.     a slanting or tilted position. v. [no object]     to tilt or turn with a sudden jerk:The boat canted violently.

(WordReference)

From Javanese:

Cantingꦕꦤ꧀ꦛꦶꦁCanting
Canting used in the batik-making process
Other namestjanting (in Javindo)TypesRengreng, Isen, Cecek, Klowong, Tembokan, Cecekan, Loron, Telon, Prapatan, Liman, Byok, GalaranUsed withWax, BatikInventorJavaneseManufacturerJavanese (part of Native Indonesians, Java-origin)RelatedThe batik making tools displayed at National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta. From center top: canting a fine tool to apply wax; from left to right: wooden brush with coconut fibre hair, Iron calipers for measuring, also calipers, tongs, hammer, and file.

Canting (/t͡ʃɑntɪŋ/, from Javanese ꦕꦤ꧀ꦛꦶꦁ, canṭing; Javindo: tjanting) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax (malam) in the traditional native Javan batik-making process in Indonesian island of Java (mainly and originally), more precisely for the batik tulis (lit. 'hand-crafted batik'). Traditional Canting consists of copper wax-container with small pipe spout and bamboo handle. It is commonly made of copper, bronze, zinc or iron materials, as well as teflon in modern-days.

Batik crafters scooping hot liquid wax using canting at a batik workshop in Gulurejo village, near Yogyakarta

Canting is derived from Javanese word of canthing ꦕꦤ꧀ꦛꦶꦁ (IPA: t͡ʃɑnʈɪŋ) which means the small scooping tool.[

(Wikipedia)

The above is not an exhaustive listing of "cant(ing)" words, e.g. heraldry, horse's gait.

 

Selected readings

 

Appendix