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Carol vs Descant - What's the difference?

carol | descant | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between carol and descant

is that carol is to sing carols, especially Christmas carols in a group while descant is to sing or play a descant.

As a proper noun Carol

is {{given name|female|from=Germanic}}, popular in the middle of the 20th century.

carol

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (historical) A round dance accompanied by singing.
  • A song of joy.
  • * Dryden
    • the costly feast, the carol , and the dance
  • * 1908 ,
    • The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
  • A religious song or ballad of joy.
    • They sang a Christmas carol .
  • * Keble
    • In the darkness sing your carol of high praise.
  • * Longfellow
    • I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carol play.

    Verb

  • To sing in a joyful manner.
  • * Spenser
    • carol of love's high praise
  • * Beattie
    • The gray linnets carol from the hill.
  • To sing carols, especially Christmas carols in a group.
  • To praise or celebrate in song.
  • * Milton
    • The shepherds at their festivals / Carol her goodness.
  • To sing (a song) cheerfully.
  • * Prior
    • Hovering swans carol sounds harmonious.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    descant

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A lengthy discourse on a subject
  • * De Quincey
    • Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant !
  • (music) a counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To discuss at length.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1913, author=
    • , title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=4 citation , passage=“… This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, …”}}
  • To sing or play a descant.

    • Quotations

    * 1919, , Duckworth, hardback edition, page 121 *: Involving some interesting, intellectual trips, she was descanting lightly to right and left.

    Anagrams

    *