clench

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clenchen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English beclencan (“to fix firmly, hold fast”),^[5][4][6] the prefixed form in which -clencan appears.^[4][7][3] The Old English verb is a causative of clingan (“to cling”), the source of cling, and so meant literally to cause to cling.^[3][8] Wiktionary writes the Germanic verb Proto-Germanic *klangijaną, causative of *klinganą (“to stick, adhere”);^[1] the OED and Hoad write it *klankjan, which the OED glosses as to make stick firmly together, to rivet.^[9][10] It is cognate with Old High German klenkan and Middle High German klenken (“to fasten closely together, tie, knot, entwine”),^[9][6] and closely related formations are Dutch klinken, Danish klinke and Swedish klinka,^[9][3] with German Klinke (“latch”) beside them.^[3] Barnhart goes back further, to Proto-Indo-European *glenḡ-.^[6] Skeat instead explained it as a causal of clink.^[11] The noun is a conversion of the verb.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fix securely, as with nails or rivets: before 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale: Ich wot ȝef smiþes schal uuele clenche.^[9][2][6] Bosworth-Toller's example of the Old English compound comes from Psalm 104:18: Hí beclencton on fótcopsum fét his.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first uses are about fastening: Chaucer's Knight's Tale has a door Yclenched ouerthwart and endelong With iren tough, and the Middle English verb was also used of nailing Christ to the Cross and of building the ark.^[2] The sense of gripping with the hand the OED first finds in King Horn before 1300, although it notes that some take that passage as a separate verb meaning to twang a harp.^[9][12] Closing the fingers or teeth is recorded in a Piers Plowman manuscript of about 1400, but the OED has it only from 1755 and Etymonline from 1747, with clinch in this sense from the 1630s.^[2][9][8] From about 1677, in Marvell, an argument or bargain could be clenched, on the notion of a finishing stroke that fastens it.^[9][8] Tennyson in 1842 used it of bracing the nerves.^[9] The noun followed the same order: the turned-back point of a nail (1598), a pun or quibble (1638 to 1807), and a grip (from 1779 in Barnhart and Etymonline, 1781 in the OED).^[9][6][8] Barnhart adds that an earlier noun of about 1250 perhaps meant a swaddling band.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave no definition of his own, sending the reader to clinch.^[13]

Timeline

• before 1250 – to fix securely, as with nails.^[9][2]
• before 1300 – to grasp firmly, in King Horn.^[9] Etymonline dates this sense c. 1300.^[8]
• c. 1400 – of fingers, to close tightly, in Piers Plowman.^[2] The OED's first record of the sense is from 1755 and Etymonline's from 1747.^[9][8]
• 1598 – noun, the part of a nail or bolt that is turned back.^[9] Etymonline says the 1590s.^[8]
• 1638 – noun, a play on words (until 1807).^[9]
• c. 1677 – figuratively, to settle an argument or bargain conclusively.^[9][8]
• 1779 – noun, a grasp or grip.^[6][8]
• 1803 – in nautical use, to make fast the end of a rope.^[9]
• 1842 – figuratively, to brace up one's nerves.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To close or press tightly together, as the fingers or teeth: The goalkeeper clenched his fists and waited.^[14][7][9]
2. To hold firmly; to grip or clutch: The rider clenched the reins.^[14][7][9]
3. To become tightly closed or tense, as the hand or a muscle.^[9][7]
4. To secure a nail or bolt by bending back and beating down its end; to clinch.^[7][9]
5. To settle an argument or bargain conclusively; to clinch.^[7][9]
6. (nautical) To make fast the end of a rope.^[9]

Noun

1. A firm grasp or grip; the act of clenching.^[14][7][9]
2. A device that grips, such as a clamp.^[14]
3. The end of a nail or other fastening that has been turned back.^[7][9]
4. A strong fitting, as on a ship's deck, that anchors cables or shackles.^[7]
5. (archaic) A pun or quibble.^[7][9]

Word family

• clencher

Related words

• cling
• clinch

Usage notes

From the 16th century onward clench was often made into clinch, and in current use the two are interchangeable in some senses;^[9] Hoad and Weekley describe them as now differentiated, with clench going with the fist or teeth and clinch with the settling of a matter.^[10][15] The OED enters separately a verb clench, to chatter or talk against (about 1315 to 1440), of doubtful origin.^[9] In Wright's dialect dictionary clench is to limp in Scotland, and to turn a bucket over under the water when drawing from a well in Worcestershire.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ 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 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ 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)