claret

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English claret, also cleret,^[2] borrowed from Middle French claret,^[3][4][5] the noun use of the Old French adjective claret or clairet (“light in colour”), applied to wine from about 1200,^[3][6] a diminutive of cler, modern French clair (“clear”),^[3][7][8] which is from Latin clārus (“clear”).^[9][10] The French phrase vin claret, light-coloured wine, lies behind the English use.^[4][5][11] As the name of a spiced wine drink, the Old French noun may also be an alteration of claré, the source of clary,^[3][12] which goes back to Medieval Latin clārātum (“clarified (wine)”), from clārō (“to make clear”).^[11][13][14] Compare Medieval Latin claretum (1443), Old Occitan claret, Italian chiaretto and Spanish clarete.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sweet drink of wine mixed with honey and spices: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

From about 1440 the word named a yellowish or light red wine, as distinct from both red and white wine;^[3][4][15] the Promptorium Parvulorum glosses claret, or cleret, as wyne with Latin semiclarus.^[2][16] Around 1600 it began to be used of red wines in general,^[4][15] and since most red wine brought to Britain came from south-western France, it was narrowed to red Bordeaux;^[13] Etymonline dates this sense to 1700,^[9] Merriam-Webster to 1701,^[5] and Barnhart sees it spreading gradually after 1700.^[4] In modern French, clairet still means a light red wine and not a Bordeaux.^[3][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as "French wine, of a clear pale-red colour".^[17] The slang sense "blood" is recorded from 1604, in Dekker and Middleton's Honest Whore, and was long a boxing word;^[3][18][15] from it came the verb "to bloody" (1818).^[3][18] The colour, first a warm amber or light red and later a deep purplish red, is named by the adjective from 1547 and by the noun since 1648.^[3] In East Anglia rustics used claret for any foreign red wine.^[19]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a sweet drink of wine, honey and spices (obsolete by 1559).^[3][2]
• before 1425 – adjective, of wine, amber or light red (obsolete by 1500).^[3]
• c. 1440 – a yellowish or light red wine, distinct from red and white.^[3][4]
• 1547 – adjective, of the colour of claret.^[3]
• 1604 – slang, blood.^[3][18]
• 1648 – noun, the colour of claret.^[3]
• 1700 – red wine of Bordeaux.^[9] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1701.^[5]
• 1814 – verb, to drink claret.^[3]
• 1818 – verb, slang, to make bloody.^[3] Green's first record is from 1823.^[18]
• 1867 – a claret-coloured fishing fly (obsolete).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A red wine from the Bordeaux region of France: They opened a bottle of claret with the roast.^[5][14][3]
2. A medium-bodied red wine made elsewhere in a similar style.^[5]
3. A deep purplish-red colour.^[14][5][3]
4. (slang) Blood.^[5][3][18]
5. (obsolete, 1398–1559) A sweet drink of wine mixed with honey and spices.^[3][2]

Adjective

1. Of a deep purplish-red colour: a claret scarf.^[14][3]

Verb

1. (slang) To make bloody, especially in boxing.^[3][18]
2. To drink claret.^[3]

Related words

• clear
• clary
• clarify

Usage notes

A second noun claret, of unknown origin, meant a spigot for drawing liquor from a cask; it is recorded only from 1440 to 1466.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ 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)