clamo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkɫaː.moː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈklaː.mo]^[1]

Forms

clāmō (present infinitive clāmāre, perfect active clāmāvī, supine clāmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It looks like a verb made from a noun meaning “shout, shouting”, inherited from Proto-Italic *klām-o/ā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₁-m(o)-, which Latin later replaced with clāmor.^[2][1] The root is the one in calāre “to call”,^[2][3][4] and the TLL also compares clārus.^[4] Lewis and Short compare Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[2] who has a slave say “the old man is shouting inside, as usual”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant to shout or cry out, often introducing direct speech, and to greet or accompany something with shouts.^[3] Poets said that rivers and valleys resound.^[3] Cicero used it of documents that “proclaim” a fact, as when a man's own account books show the plunder was his.^[3]

It also meant to call someone by name, as Lucilius calling his slaves when he wakes, and Medieval Latin used it for calling and naming.^[3][1] It survives as Italian chiamare, Romanian chema, Spanish llamar and Portuguese chamar,^[1] and English claim came from Old French clamer about 1300.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for shouting.^[3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it with direct speech.^[3][7]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it for calling slaves by name.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of documents that declare a fact.^[3][7]
• c. 1300 – English claim is borrowed from Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shout, cry out.^[3][5]
2. To say aloud, exclaim (words).^[3]
3. To greet with shouts; to make resound.^[3]
4. (of places) To resound.^[3]
5. To declare plainly, proclaim.^[3]
6. To call by name.^[3][1]

Word family

• acclāmō
• circumclamo
• clāmātor
• clāmātōrius
• clamatus
• clāmitō
• clāmōsus
• conclāmō
• dēclāmō
• exclāmō
• inclāmō
• interclamo

Related words

• English claim
• English clamour
• English exclaim

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes clangere, the cry of animals and the sound of instruments, from clamare, a human cry expressing one's will, and vociferari, shouting in anger, pain or drunkenness.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper