clangor

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈkɫaŋ.ɡɔr]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈklaŋ.ɡor]^[1]

Forms

clangor m (genitive clangōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin clangō (“to clang, ring”) + -or.^[2][1][3] clangō is compared with Ancient Greek κλαγγή (klangḗ, “shrill sound”),^[2][1] and Pokorny puts both under a root of crying and sounding, Proto-Indo-European *klang-.^[4] Servius took the Latin word for Greek, from that noun, and the grammarians count it among words made from a sound.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD record it first in Cicero,^[5][2] in verses quoted in the Tusculan Disputations, of the loud cry of a bird of prey (clangorem fundit vastum).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly a poetic word, also found in Augustan prose.^[6] It is the crying or the noise of birds, as they scream or fly, in Cicero's verse, Livy, Ovid and Pliny the Elder,^[6][2] the baying of dogs in Grattius,^[2][6] and a shrill human cry of mourning in the declamations attributed to Quintilian.^[2] Virgil uses it for the blare of trumpets and for the clang of iron.^[2][6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means noise, shouting or clanging.^[7] Medieval writers used it for trumpet blasts and the ringing of a church bell.^[8] English took clangor over in the 1590s.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in verse of a bird's cry.^[2][6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of trumpets and of clanging iron.^[2][6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of birds flying with loud cries.^[6][5]
• 1590s – English borrows it as clangor.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The crying, screaming or noise of birds.^[2][6]
2. The baying of dogs; a shrill human cry.^[2]
3. The blare or blast of trumpets.^[2][6]
4. The clang or ringing of iron.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com