claim

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kleɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cleimen, claymen,^[2] borrowed from Old French claim-, the stressed stem of clamer “to call, name, appeal, claim, complain”,^[3][4][2] from Latin clāmāre (“to cry out, shout, proclaim”),^[3][2] akin to Latin calāre “to call”.^[5] Etymonline takes clāmāre to Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”),^[3] and Merriam-Webster relates it to English low, “to moo”.^[5][2] The noun is inherited from Middle English claime, from Old French claime, from clamer.^[2][5] The same Latin verb gave acclaim, reclaim and clamour.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, “to demand as one's own or one's due”, is from probably about 1300,^[2][3] and the OED has the related sense of asserting a right before 1300;^[7] the noun, “a demand of a right”, is from before 1325, in Cursor Mundi.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A right or title to something is from about 1330.^[7] A thing claimed is from 1792, especially a piece of land allotted and taken by a miner or settler in the United States and Australia;^[3][7] claim-jumper is attested from 1839.^[3] The insurance sense, an application for compensation, is from 1878, and the verb “to make an insurance claim” from 1897.^[3][7] The meaning “to assert as true, maintain” is from 1864,^[3][7] chiefly American at first; the Century Dictionary in 1895 called it common but regarded by many as inelegant.^[3] Claimant is from 1747, at first a legal term on the model of appellant and defendant.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1300 – to assert a right.^[7]
• c. 1300 – to demand as one's due.^[2][3]
• before 1325 – noun, a demand of a right.^[2]
• c. 1330 – a right or title.^[7]
• 1747 – claimant.^[2]
• 1792 – a thing claimed; a mining claim.^[3][7]
• 1864 – to assert, maintain.^[3][7]
• 1878 – an insurance claim.^[3][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To demand or ask for as one's own or one's due.
2. To state to be true, especially when it may be doubted; to assert.
3. To call for; to deserve or require: the matter claims our attention.
4. To take, especially by violence: the flood claimed many lives.
5. To make a demand for payment under an insurance policy.

Noun

1. A demand for something as rightful or due.
2. A right or title to something.
3. A statement that something is true, which may be challenged.
4. Something claimed, especially a piece of land staked out by a miner.
5. A demand for payment under an insurance policy.

Word family

• claimable
• claimer
• claimless
• counterclaim
• misclaim
• overclaim
• reclaim

Related words

• claimant
• disclaim
• disclaimer
• clamor
• acclaim
• exclaim
• proclaim
• declaim
• clear

Usage notes

Claim in the sense “to assert” was long criticized,^[3] and the Century Dictionary held that the word should not stray far from its true meaning of demanding recognition of a right.^[3] Among near synonyms, a title is a claim with legal backing, while a pretension or pretense may be a claim with little ground.^[8] In south Worcestershire to claim someone was to greet them as an acquaintance.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)