Etymologically
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clamo

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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
  • 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