clango

Forms

clangō (present infinitive clangere, perfect active clanguī); third conjugation, no supine stem, third person-only in the passive^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[1] It is usually compared with Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “to make a sharp noise”) and κλαγγή (klangḗ, “a shrill sound”),^[2][1][3] and with Old Norse hlakka (“to cry out”) and Old English hlacerian (“to mock”).^[3][4] Pokorny puts it under a root of crying and sounding with several variants.^[4]

Schrijver derives Latin ⟨clang-⟩ and Greek ⟨κλαγγ-⟩ from an older *klāng- shortened by Osthoff's law, from a nasalised *klh₂g-, though he hesitates over an expressive root;^[1] Beekes rejects this reconstruction for the Greek and thinks the word was taken from a non-Indo-European language.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is the tragedian Accius, who has the phrase crepitu clangente, “with a ringing crash”.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is rare, found only in early Latin and in poets after Augustus.^[5] Valerius Flaccus and Statius use it of the trumpet: horrida clangunt signa tubae, “the trumpets sound the dreadful signal”, in Statius.^[2][5][7] It was also the cry of birds: Suetonius gives it as the word for the scream of eagles,^[2][8] Apuleius uses it of a raven, Sidonius of swans and geese, and Ammianus of a peacock.^[8][3] Fronto applied it to a speaker's ringing delivery.^[2][8]

The Vulgate uses it for blowing the trumpet as a signal, with a perfect ⟨clanguerīs⟩ found only there,^[3][8] and Prudentius makes it transitive, “to sound out” a signal.^[8] Medieval writers used it of people raising their voices, of trumpets, bells and vessels ringing, and of the cries of birds.^[9]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of a ringing crash.^[2][6]
• end of the 1st century AD – Valerius Flaccus has the trumpet clangente tuba.^[2][5][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius names it as the scream of the eagle.^[2][6]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it of a ringing tone of speech.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for sounding the trumpet.^[8][3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a ringing or clanging noise, to sound (of trumpets and the like).^[2][5][7]
2. Of birds: to scream, cry (eagles), croak (ravens), cackle (geese).^[2][8]
3. (figurative) To speak in a ringing tone.^[2][8]
4. (transitive) To sound out a signal; to blow the trumpet.^[8][7][1]

Word family

• clangor
• reclango

Related words

• English clang

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it as the cry of animals and the clang of instruments, while clāmāre and vōciferārī are the cries of human beings.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper