clang

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Latin clangō (“to ring out, as a trumpet; to scream, as an eagle”),^[2][3] as the American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins and Klein also hold.^[4][5][6][7] Etymonline, Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford instead take it as an imitative word, influenced by the Latin verb and by clangor (“sound of a trumpet, scream of birds”);^{[8][9][10][11]} Barnhart also allows that it may be an independent imitative formation related to clank.^[3] The OED notes that the echoic character of the word has shaped its use, so that its central sense moved away from that of the Latin.^[2] The Latin verb, itself imitative according to Klein, is probably cognate with Ancient Greek κλαγγή (klangḗ, “sharp sound, din”) and κλάζω (klázō, “to make a sharp sound, scream”),^[2][3][7] with Old Norse hlakka (“to shout, scream”) and Lithuanian klagėti (“to cackle”),^[3][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *klang-.^[3] Klein also compares Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hlahjan, “to laugh”) and laugh,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Old English hlōwan (“to moo”).^[5] The OED keeps apart German Klang (“sound”), from Old High German chlang, as an echoic word that arose separately in German.^[2] The noun is apparently from the verb.^[2][8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1557.^[5] The verb, to give out a loud ringing sound, at first of a trumpet, is first recorded in 1576, in Fleming's translation of Isocrates.^[2][3][5] The OED's first record of the noun is from 1615,^[2] while Barnhart has it from 1596, in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Like the Latin, the word was used first of trumpets and of the cries of large birds; it came to mean above all the ringing of metal struck together.^[2][8] Milton wrote of the sea-mews clang, and Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a sharp, shrill noise.^[12] The bird sense of the noun is recorded from 1667, in Paradise Lost,^[2] and that of the verb from 1832.^[2] The verb was transitive, to strike together with a clang, from 1718,^[2] and took a cognate object from 1850, a date Etymonline gives for the transitive verb in general.^[2][8] Some writers used the noun in the sense of κλαγγή (klangḗ), for the twang of a bow,^[2] and in acoustics and psychology it translated German Klang, a musical sound with its overtones (from 1867, in Tyndall).^[2][11] In Northamptonshire dialect clang meant to eat greedily.^[13]

Timeline

• 1557 – noun, a loud resounding sound.^[5]
• 1576 – verb, to make a loud ringing sound, at first of a trumpet.^[2][3][5]
• 1660 – noun, figuratively.^[2]
• 1667 – noun, the loud harsh cry of certain birds.^[2][11]
• 1718 – verb, transitive, to strike together with a clang.^[2]
• 1832 – verb, of birds, to utter their harsh cry.^[2]
• 1867 – in acoustics, a musical sound with its overtones, after German Klang.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loud, ringing, metallic sound, as of a bell or of metal objects struck together: the clang of the prison gate.^[5][6][11]
2. The loud, harsh cry of certain birds, such as cranes or geese.^[5][6][11]

Verb

1. To make a loud ringing metallic sound: The church bells clanged at noon.^[5][6][11]
2. To move or work with such a sound: A tram clanged along the avenue.^[5][6][11]
3. To cause to clang; to strike together with a clang.^[5][11][2]
4. Of birds, to utter a loud harsh cry.^[5][11][2]

Word family

• clanger
• clanging

Related words

• clangor
• clank
• clink

Usage notes

The OED records a rare obsolete verb clang, to make sticky or stiff, from 1631, perhaps from an association of clag and cling.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ 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)