clairon

Forms

clairon m (plural clairons)^[1] Old French cleron, rare before the 16th century;^[2][3] clairon is recorded from 1559.^[2][3] Middle French clarons in Villon and claronceaux in Froissart.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from French clair + -on, the adjective being taken in its sense “clear-sounding, resonant”: the instrument was named for its clear sound.^[2][5][3][4] The Old French form was cleron, built on cler, the older form of the adjective, which is from Latin clārus (“clear”).^[2][6][7] Littré compares Low Latin clāriō and Italian chiarina.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as cleron in Philippe de Beaumanoir's La Manekine (about 1270), naming a trumpet with a clear sound.^[2][3] A 13th-century text quoted by Du Cange lists trompetes, clerons et cors together.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare until the 16th century.^[2][3] In late medieval texts the clarion sounds beside trumpets and horns in armies and processions, as in Froissart and Villon.^[4] It came to name a brass instrument without valves or keys, with a bright, piercing sound, which sets it apart from the trumpet, and it was specialized as a military instrument, used above all by the infantry.^[3][2]

By metonymy it named the soldier who plays it (1845, Bescherelle) and the call it sounds (1866, Larousse).^[8] Figuratively, a clairon is whatever rouses or gives the alarm, and a voice can have du clairon in it.^[8][2] In the organ it names a reed stop pitched an octave above the trumpet stop.^[4][9]

The verb claironner is recorded from 1559 but was little used before the late 19th century.^[3] The English word clarion came from Old French clarion and Medieval Latin clāriō in the early 14th century.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1270 – Cleron appears in Philippe de Beaumanoir's La Manekine.^[2]
• Early 14th century – English borrows clarion.^[10]
• 1559 – The spelling clairon is recorded, in Buttet.^[2]
• 1559 – The verb claironner is first recorded.^[3]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense “bugler”.^[8]
• 1866 – Larousse records the sense “bugle call”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bugle: a brass wind instrument without valves or keys, with a clear, piercing sound, used mainly in the army.^[9][2][8]
2. A bugler, a soldier or musician who plays the bugle.^[9][8]
3. A bugle call.^[8]
4. (figurative) Something that rouses or alerts people.^[8]
5. (music) An organ stop an octave above the trumpet stop.^[9][4]

Word family

• claironner
• claironnant
• claironnement

Related words

• clair
• clarine
• clarinette
• Latin clārus
• English clarion

Usage notes

The old proverb à bête sûre, il ne faut pas de clairon meant that a trustworthy person need not be watched.^[2][4] Littré also lists a second clairon, a Picard word for a brief gleam of moonlight or sunlight on a dark night or day, likewise from clair.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 743a
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com