club

Pronunciation

• IPA: /klʌb/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clubbe, borrowed from Old Norse klubba (“cudgel, club”) (also klumba),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *klumbō,^[2][3] whose -mb- was assimilated to -bb-.^[3][4] Its cognates include Swedish klubba (“gavel”) and klubbe.^[2][3] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *glembh-.^[2] It is related to clump.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thick, heavy stick used as a weapon: probably before 1200, in Layamon,^[2] or about 1205.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that Old English used sagol and cycgel for this.^[3] A stick or bat used in ball games is from the mid-15th century,^[3][7] later especially in golf.^[4] The suit at cards is named from the 1560s, translating Spanish basto and Italian bastone, though English cards use the French trefoil.^[3][5] The verb meant “to beat with a club” from 1593,^[7][8] and “to gather into a club-like mass” from the 1620s.^[3][7] From this, according to Etymonline, came the noun “association of people” in the 1640s and “company organized to meet for social purposes” in the 1660s;^[3] Word Origins notes that it is not clear whether the sense comes from clumping together or from clubbing together to share costs, both of the mid-17th century.^[9] John Aubrey wrote in 1659 that club was now used for a society meeting in a tavern.^[3] To club together, “to share costs”, is from 1655.^[7] Join the club is by 1944.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a heavy stick (Layamon).^[2]
• mid-15th century – a stick for ball games.^[3][7]
• 1560s – the suit at cards.^[3]
• 1593 – verb, to beat with a club.^[7]
• 1620s – verb, to gather into a mass.^[3]
• 1640s – an association of people.^[3]
• 1655 – verb, to share costs.^[7]
• 1660s – a social club.^[3]
• 1944 – join the club.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A heavy stick, usually thicker at one end, used as a weapon; a cudgel.
2. A stick for hitting the ball in some games, especially golf.
3. A black trefoil on playing cards; a card or suit with this figure.
4. A group of people organized for a common purpose, or the place where they meet.
5. A nightclub.

Verb

1. To beat with a club.
2. To gather into a club-like mass.
3. To join or contribute for a common purpose.

Word family

• clubbish
• clubbable
• clubber
• clubby
• clubface
• clubhand
• clubhead
• clubman

Related words

• clump
• clubfoot
• nightclub
• clubhouse

Usage notes

In Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire a club feast or club walk was the annual festival of a benefit society.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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)