»de(s)cant

Transfixed by a rapid succession of bottles, glasses (O! beautiful stemware! How come I drink from a humble tumbler at home?), and, finally, a decanter passing over the counter at Hotel Biron, Aram wondered about the origin of that name. Is it related to canto, to sing? I suggested that the Latin root cant- came into english with the prefix de to form descant, and I was correct:

descant: Middle English, from Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval
Latin discantus, a refrain : Latin dis-, dis- + Latin cantus, song,
from past participle of canere, to sing. See kan-

as for decant(er), the original question, I should have known (and
Meiling would doubtless have remembered) that it comes from the greek
noun kanthos, meaning 'eyelid'. The greek poets drew a visual simile
between a wnie-jug's lip and the tear-duct-y bit of one's eye.

Ah, for the sound of popping corks.