Here's why:
* "Dist-" comes from the Latin root "dis-" meaning "apart" or "away," which relates to the concept of "far away."
* "-ant" is a common suffix in English that often indicates a noun or adjective related to an action or state, and in this case, it relates to the concept of "sound."
Therefore, "distant" signifies something that is "far away" in terms of sound, meaning it is faint or hard to hear.