Other forms: enchanted, enchanting, enchants
To enchant is to delight somebody, or to put them under a spell. Enchant the audience, an enchanted forest, utterly enchanted.
The magical sense is the original and the delighted one is a metaphor that has almost swallowed it — being enchanted by a performance is the ordinary use now. The Latin means to sing over, since a spell was chanted, which is why chant and incantation are relatives. Note enchanting, enchantment.
1verbdelightTo delight somebody greatly.
“The little town enchanted us with its narrow streets and flower-filled balconies.”
2verbenchantTo put under a spell.
“The fairy enchanted the prince, turning him into a stone statue.”
enchant is a delighting or bewitching.
Latin incantare means to sing a spell over — in plus cantare, to sing. Chant, incantation and charm come from the same singing.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂n-
Latin
incantō
Old French
enchanter
Middle English
enchaunten
English, today
enchant
From Middle English enchaunten, from Old French enchanter, from Latin incantō. a doublet of incant.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA