clout

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clout, early Middle English clut,^[2][3] inherited from Old English clūt (“small piece of cloth, patch; metal plate”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz.^[3][8][9] It is cognate with Old Norse klútr (“kerchief”), Middle Low German klūte, Middle Dutch clute and Dutch kluit (“clod, lump”),^{[8][4][10][6][7]} and with Danish klud (“rag”).^[9][7] Barnhart and Holthausen also compare Old High German klōz (“lump, clod”), now Kloß;^[3][11] Barnhart traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *gloud-.^[3] The Oxford dictionaries relate it to cleat and clot,^[10][6][12] and Ayto suggests a Germanic base Proto-Germanic *klut-, *kleut- or *klaut-, shared with cluster and clutter.^[13] The Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic words for a patch were borrowed from English.^[4][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A patch, and a plate of iron: both senses are recorded in Old English, the first in the Épinal Glossary, glossing Latin pittacium;^[4][5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 700.^[3] Ælfric's homilies tell of iron clūtas laid glowing hot to someone's side.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From "patch" the word came to mean a piece of cloth, especially a worthless one, a rag (from about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle), contemptuously any garment (before 1300), swaddling clothes (from the Ormulum) and a handkerchief (about 1380).^[4][2] The garment sense survives in the proverb ne'er cast a clout till May be out.^[4][13] In archery a clout was a piece of canvas laid on the ground as the mark, and later a large target (late 16th century).^[10][15] The sense "a blow", recorded from the 14th century,^[6][13][12] probably before 1325 according to Barnhart,^[3] is hard to explain: the Middle English Dictionary takes it as a special use of the word, first meaning the back of the hand,^[2] the ODE suggests the change happened first in the verb, from "put a patch on" to "hit hard",^[12] and Ayto thinks it may be a different word altogether.^[13] The verb "to cuff heavily" is first recorded about 1330, in Guy of Warwick.^[4][3] The modern sense "influence, especially political power" is American: Green's Dictionary of Slang has a single quotation from 1868 and then the familiar use from 1937 in Chicago politics,^[16] Etymonline dates it to 1946,^[9] and Barnhart to 1963.^[3] William Safire, as Green's reports, derived it either from baseball's clout, a big hit, or from the slang verb clout, to steal.^[16] In British dialect a clout is still a piece of cloth or a garment,^[15] and in the American Midland especially a diaper.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Old English clūt, a patch; an iron plate.^[3][4][5]
• c. 1175 – in the plural, swaddling clothes (obsolete), in the Ormulum.^[4]
• c. 1225 – a piece of cloth, a rag.^[4][2]
• before 1300 – contemptuously, an article of clothing.^[4]
• before 1325 – a blow.^[3] The verb, to cuff heavily, follows about 1330.^[4]
• before 1375 – verb, to mend with a patch.^[4]
• c. 1380 – a handkerchief.^[4]
• late 16th century – in archery, the mark shot at.^[10]
• 1937 – influence, especially in politics (once in 1868).^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. Power or influence, especially in politics: The union has real clout in the capital.^[15][10][16]
2. (informal) A heavy blow, especially with the hand.^[15][18][10]
3. (baseball) A hard hit.^[18]
4. (archery) A large target laid on the ground for long-distance shooting, its centre, or a shot that hits it.^[15][10]
5. A clout nail.^[15][18][10]
6. (dialect) A piece of cloth or a patch; a garment; a diaper.^[15][18][17]
7. (obsolete except in dialect) An iron plate fixed to an axletree or plough to prevent wear.^[4][10][18]

Verb

1. (informal) To hit hard, especially with the hand: She clouted the intruder with her umbrella.^[15][18][4]
2. To hit a ball hard.^[18]
3. To mend with a patch.^[15][18][4]
4. To protect with an iron plate, or to stud shoe soles with nails.^[18][4][10]
5. (slang) To steal.^[18][16]

Word family

• clouter
• breechclout
• dishclout

Related words

• clot
• cleat
• clod
• cluster
• clutter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster