What is the point of the word 'decant'?

[StealthPolarBear]

Just say 'pour'

but then what would you call a decanter?

do you know I've never connected the two words in my mind
don't mind a decanter for drinks
It's when you 'decant' shampoo, or are told to decant an indian ready meal (I've been ill - honest) into an oven proof dish that I get wound up

But it doesn't mean the same as 'pour'

It specifically means 'pour into another container', doesn't it?

but why the need to be so specific?

what an odd OP.

What is the point of the word "tepid" - just say "slightly warm"

What is the point of the word "loquacious" - just say "talkative"

What is the point of the word "profound" - just say deep.

In fact feck it, what's the point of any word? Why not just grunt and point.

Ok, to answer your q seriously, because it means something totally different to "pour" and is a quick way to say (as Moles said) "pour into another, more practical or more decorative container".

If you say
"I poured the wine" it has a totally different meaning to "I decanted the wine".

You could say "I poured the wine into a decanter" - but that's rather long winded and still includes the word "decant" to boot.

You could also say "I poured the wine into another vessel in order to breath, and in order to leave any undrinkable residue in the original bottle" but that's still more long-winded.

Are there any other words you would like to vent about? . Come to that - why say "vent" why not "let off steam, either in a metaphorical or a literal fashion".

Sorry stealth, I am being deliberately mean

I think there is a serious point which is broadly that of the plain English campaign - that some organisations (especially estate agents for some reason?!) like to dress up perfectly ordinary statements in unnecessarily high-falutin language to bamboozle the consumer into thinking they are entering a wonderful world of curry-based mystique. Rather than just pouring stuff.

A favourite of one estate agent near us is to say that a flat is "hewn from an impressive period residence". Whereas what they mean is "it's a Victorian conversion". Hewn. Barf.

Makes me think of the estate agent there with pitch and shovel, hacking away at the coal face .

well the reason I started the OP was
"decant the contents into an oven proof container"
"pour" (or "transfer") would do equally well there
Also decanting something as banal as shampoo - what is the point? Put it in a smaller bottle if you need to, but decant seems an unnecesarily flowery description.

I'm creating a new word for cooking something at 200degrees for 40 minutes - "sinelling"

sinelling. I like it.

I will be double-sinelling a chicken tomorrow.

Or would that be bisinelling?

"told to decant an indian ready meal"

I would be worried, if I were you. My dictionary defines decant as "to pour off, leaving sediment". Bon appétit!

• In fact feck it, what's the point of any word? Why not just grunt and point. *

For nearly half of the population, or so it seems to me, that's just about all they can actually manage to do these days...

I guess if you were told to decant your indian ready meal into an oven proof dish, it implies it is runny and has inedible sediment. I would change where you shop.

Actually I disagree that the essential purpose of decanting is to leave behind sediment.

That's one of the purposes of decanting. But there are others. For example you can have spirit decanters, which have little or no sediment. It would be perfectly correct to say "I decanted the whiskey into the decanter" (albeit rather clunky )

The other purposes of decanting are in order to use a more practical or more decorative container. Both of which could be correct in the context of the Indian ready meal.

It sounds as though there's been some faulty translation on the indian meal - I agree, decanting the meal into an oven proof dish is not an appropriate use of the word and it should be transfer (unless, as Pavlov says, there's something in the meal that needs to be left out or it needs to 'breathe' before cooking ) - however, that's the fault of the package producers, and doesn't mean that 'decant' is not a word with a useful meaning (even if we don't normally need to decant wine these days).

uurrgg Cattj mmf ggrrrrggh aarrgh

I think that covers it.

Sniggering gently at the thought of pouring an Indian ready meal and leaving the sediment behind.

The 'sediment' from my takeaway chicken korma last week would have consisted of three medium-sized pieces of chicken....

I could have done with decanting my curry on Thursday night and leaving the chillies behind. I ate what I thought was a green French bean, to enter into a world of pain.... Had to break into the fridge and find the plain yoghurt and hold mouthfulls in my mouth for about 10mins before I could cope.

decant
verb
gradually pour (wine, port, or another liquid) from one container into another, typically in order to separate out sediment.

BRITISH
temporarily transfer (people) to another place.
"tour coaches decant eager customers directly into the store"

This sounds quite specific.

While you've got the dictionary open, @systemlakeland, you might want to look up "zombie thread".