clamor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clamour, also clamor,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French clamour, also clamor and clamur,^[5][6][7] recorded in Anglo-Norman as clamur from the first half of the 12th century,^[8][9][10] from Latin clāmor (“a shout, a loud call”),^[6][4] from clāmō (“to cry out”),^[6][4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”).^[6][4] The modern French form is clameur.^[6][11] The verb is from the noun.^{[5][6][9][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A shout, a cry: 1382.^[12] Loud shouting or outcry is recorded from about 1386;^[12] Barnhart has about 1385, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[5] and Etymonline dates the noun to the late 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin noun could be friendly or hostile,^[6] and the French word covered a call, an appeal and a complaint;^[6][8] in Middle English it meant shouting and uproar, loud cries of pain or grief, and importunate entreaty.^[2] Chaucer used it 3 times and Gower 7.^[13] The figurative sense, a general vehement expression of feeling, usually discontent, appeared at the same time.^[12] The verb is dated about 1385 by Barnhart^[5] and about 1400 by the 1989 edition of the OED;^[12] it took on the sense "to raise an outcry against" by 1548 and "to demand importunately" by 1651.^[12] From the late 16th century the noun was used of any loud or confused noise,^[10] and Johnson (1755) noted that it was used "less fitly" of inanimate things.^[14] A transitive use, to move or put down by clamoring, dates from the mid 17th century,^[10] and Johnson quoted Bacon's "to clamour counsels".^[14]

Timeline

• 1382 – a shout, a cry.^[12]
• c. 1386 – loud shouting; vehement public expression of feeling.^[12][5]
• c. 1400 – verb, to shout or raise an outcry.^[12] Barnhart dates it to about 1385.^[5]
• 1548 – verb, to raise an outcry against.^[12]
• late 16th century – any loud or confused noise.^[10]
• 1651 – verb, to demand importunately.^[12]
• mid 17th century – verb, to move or put down by clamoring.^[10]
• mid 19th century – verb, to utter or assert noisily.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The loud, continued shouting of many voices; an uproar: the clamor of fans outside the stadium.^[15][16][10]
2. A loud and confused noise; a din: the clamor of factory sirens.^[15][16][10]
3. An insistent public outcry, demand or protest: a clamor against the new tolls.^[15][16][10]

Verb

1. To make a din or a loud outcry.^[15][16][10]
2. To demand or protest insistently, often with for or against: The villagers clamored for a new bridge.^[15][16][10]
3. To move, influence or force by outcry: The crowd clamored the mayor out of office.^[16][10]
4. To utter or assert noisily.^[10]

Word family

• clamorer
• outclamor
• clamorous

Related words

• claim
• acclaim
• acclamation
• exclaim
• proclaim
• declaim

Usage notes

Clamor is the American spelling and clamour the British one, in the noun and in the verb (clamored, clamoured).^[15][16] A rare verb of this spelling means "to silence", first recorded in Shakespeare in 1611 ("Clamour your tongues, and not a word more"):^[15][14][10] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate calls its origin unknown,^[17] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as probably from clam and -or,^[15] and Dictionary.com as perhaps a spelling of clammer, an obsolete form of clamber.^[3] It was also a bell-ringers' term.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster