plaudit

Etymology

It is a shortening from English of plaudite,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an actor's appeal for applause at the end of a play, recorded from 1567,^[2][5][7] which is from Latin plaudite (“applaud!”),^[2][6][8][9] the second person plural imperative of plaudō (“to clap, strike; applaud”),^[2][6][5] a verb of uncertain or unknown origin.^[5][6][7] Roman actors used the word to ask the audience for applause at the end of a play.^{[2][6][10][11]} The English plaudite was at first said in three syllables; the final vowel later fell silent and was dropped.^[5][6][12] The OED compares the slightly earlier English words plause, plaudiat and plaud.^[2] The same Latin verb gave applaud, plausible and explode.^[7][13][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A round of applause, or an audible expression of praise: 1600, in Breton's Pasquils Mad-cap.^[2][9] Barnhart's first record of the short form is from 1624,^[5] which Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories also gives,^[7] and Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word belonged to the theatre: Plautus ended his plays with an appeal to the spectators to plaudite, and the first English record, in Drant's translation of Horace (1567), still means that closing appeal.^[7][2] By 1573 plaudite could mean the applause itself,^[2] and the short plaudit took over that sense.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) gave both spellings, glossed as "applause".^[14] The specific link with the stage has since faded: the word now usually appears in the plural and means praise or approval in general.^[7][3][2] A verb plaudit, to applaud or praise, is recorded from 1640.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1600 – a round of applause, an audible expression of praise; later any emphatic approval.^[2][9] Barnhart dates the word to 1624.^[5]
• 1640 – verb, to applaud, to praise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An expression of enthusiastic praise or approval, usually in the plural: Her first novel won the plaudits of reviewers.^{[8][9][15][3]}
2. A round of applause; an act of clapping.^[9][15][2]

Verb

1. To applaud or praise.^[9][2]

Related words

• applause
• plausible
• plaudite
• applaud
• explode

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins