clapper

clapper¹ striking device

Etymology

The word for the striking device is inherited from Middle English claper, also spelled clapper and clepper,^[2][3] formed from Middle English clappen (“to clap”) + -er.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The Middle English Dictionary instead traces it to Old English clipur (“clapper of a bell”), reshaped under the influence of the verb clappen;^[2] Etymonline also notes that Old English had clipur.^[5] Bosworth–Toller compares Dutch klepel and Middle High German klepfel.^[8] The verb clap is from Old English clæppan (“to throb, beat”), or from or influenced by its Old Norse cognate klappa, an echoic Germanic verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tongue of a bell: 1323, in the Latin sacrist rolls of Ely, which pay a smith for making a clapere for the great bell.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 13th century and the bell sense to the late 14th,^[5] and Dictionary.com gives 1250–1300.^[7] The OED's first record is the lid or rattle of a beggar's clap-dish, about 1330, in Sir Tristrem.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a claper was the tongue of a bell, and figuratively the tongue of a talkative person;^[2] Lydgate called a false tongue the clapper of an untuned bell.^[2] Gower used it of a bell that cannot chime without one.^[2][9] The word also named other things that strike or rattle: the device that shakes the hopper of a mill (1340), the rattle of beggars and lepers, and later a rattle used to call people to church in Holy Week (1566) or to frighten birds (1660, in Pepys).^[4][3] Johnson (1755) gave "one who claps with his hands; an applauder" and "the tongue of a bell".^[10] The slang use for a person's tongue is recorded from Dekker in 1609,^[11] and the phrase like the clappers, very fast or very hard, is British slang.^[4] In film-making the clapper or clapperboard, snapped shut before a take to match picture and sound, dates from 1940.^[4][5] The verb, to ring a bell by moving its clapper, is dated to the 14th century by Merriam-Webster,^[3] but the OED's records begin in 1845.^[4] In Kent and in Scotland a clapper was also a bird-scaring rattle or a door knocker.^[12]

Timeline

• 1323 – the tongue of a bell.^[2] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1379.^[4]
• c. 1330 – the lid of a beggar's clap-dish, or a rattle carried by beggars or lepers.^[4]
• 1340 – the device in a mill that shakes the hopper.^[4]
• 1566 – a rattle calling people to church in Holy Week.^[4]
• 1578 – the pistil or spadix of some flowers (obsolete).^[4]
• 1609 – the tongue of a talkative person.^[11]
• 1617 – a door knocker (obsolete after 1693).^[4]
• 1660 – a rattle or windmill for scaring birds.^[4]
• 1845 – verb, to make a noise like a clapper.^[4]
• 1940 – the clapperboard used in film-making.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tongue of a bell, which strikes it on the inside: The old clapper had worn a groove in the bronze.^{[3][13][14][4]}
2. A device that makes a clapping or rattling noise, such as a rattle to frighten birds or one used in church in Holy Week instead of bells.^[3][4]
3. One of a pair of flat sticks held between the fingers and struck together in rhythm; usually plural.^[3][13]
4. A person who applauds.^[13][14][10]
5. (informal) The tongue of a talkative person.^[13][4][11]
6. A clapperboard; usually plural.^[4][5]
7. like the clappers: very fast or very hard.^[4]
8. (historical) The lid of a beggar's clap-dish, or a leper's rattle.^[3][4]

Verb

1. To ring a bell by moving its clapper.^[3][4]
2. To make a noise like a clapper.^[4]

Word family

• clapperboard
• clapperclaw
• clapper rail

clapper² rough bridge; rabbit burrow

Etymology

The word for the rabbit burrow is borrowed from Old French clapier (“rabbit hole”),^[4][2][15] the Anglo-Norman form being probably claper.^[4][6] The Old French word comes from Provençal according to the Shorter Oxford,^[6] and the OED compares Old Occitan clapier, clapiera (“heap of stones”) and clap (“heap”).^[4] In Medieval Latin, claperius, claperium and claperia meant a rabbit hole from the 14th century and earlier a heap of stones.^[4][16] The OED calls the origin of the medieval Latin unknown, noting that Thurneysen rejected a Celtic source,^[4] while the Shorter Oxford calls it Gaulish.^[6] The OED derives the clapper bridge only doubtfully from the rabbit-burrow word,^[4] which the Shorter Oxford and Chambers treat as the same word.^[6][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rabbit burrow: about 1400, in the Romaunt of the Rose,^[4][15] the one place where the Chaucerian texts use it.^[9] An early 15th-century text of Mandeville's travels speaks of the clapers of marmosets, apes and other beasts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word meant a rabbit burrow and also a place built for keeping tame rabbits; the OED's records end in 1725,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford likewise dates the sense from late Middle English to the early 18th century.^[6] Wright's dictionary still found clapper for a rabbit hole or fox earth in Scotland and Dorset, and quotes Palsgrave (1530) and Cotgrave for the older use.^[12] The clapper bridge, a rough bridge or raised path of stones or planks, is recorded from 1793, in Polwhele's History of Devonshire.^[4] In the dialects of Berkshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Devon a clapper was a rough or natural bridge over a stream, a plank on supports for walkers when the roads flooded, or stepping-stones.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a rabbit burrow, or a place for keeping tame rabbits (obsolete after 1725).^[4][2]
• 1793 – clapper bridge, a rough bridge or raised path of stones or planks.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) A simple bridge of stone slabs or planks laid across supports, also called a clapper bridge.^{[16][6][4][12]}
2. (dialect) A raised footpath.^[16]
3. (obsolete, c. 1400–1725) A rabbit burrow, or an enclosure for keeping tame rabbits.^{[4][6][16][2]}