clamor

English

Alternative forms

• clamour (UK English)

Etymology

Recorded in English since c. 1385, as Middle English clamour, from Old French clamor (modern clameur), from Latin clāmor (“a shout, cry”), from clāmō (“cry out, complain”); the sense to silence may have a distinct (unknown) etymology.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈklæm.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈklæm.ɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: clammer
• Rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)

Noun

clamor (countable and uncountable, plural clamors) (American spelling)

1. A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, book I, page 17:

     For when he knew his Rival freed and gone, / He ſwells with Wrath; he makes outrageous Moan: / He frets, he fumes, he ſtares, he ſtamps the Ground; / The hollow Tow'r with Clamours rings around: […]

2. Any loud and continued noise.
3. A continued public expression, often of dissatisfaction or discontent; a popular outcry.

Synonyms

• (great outcry): outcry, tumult

Derived terms

• clamorous
• clamorously
• clamorousness

Related terms

Translations

Verb

clamor (third-person singular simple present clamors, present participle clamoring, simple past and past participle clamored) (American spelling)

1. (intransitive) To cry out and/or demand.

   Anyone who tastes our food seems to clamor for more.

   • c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama , Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 2:

     All the universities are sending in long petitions to restrict their production. Otherwise, they say, mankind will become extinct through lack of fertility. But the R. U. R. shareholders, of course, won't hear of it. All the governments, on the other hand, are clamoring for an increase in production, to raise the standards of their armies. And all the manufacturers in the world are ordering Robots like mad.

2. (transitive) To demand by outcry.

   Thousands of demonstrators clamoring the government's resignation were literally deafening, yet their cries fell in deaf ears

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 September 2013:

     The distinctness of London has led many to clamor for the capital to pursue its own policies, especially on immigration. The British prime minister, David Cameron, is a Conservative. So is the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. But they have diametrically opposed views on immigration.

3. (intransitive) To become noisy insistently.

   After a confused murmur the audience soon clamored

4. (transitive) To influence by outcry.

   His many supporters successfully clamor his election without a formal vote

5. (obsolete, transitive) To silence.

Synonyms

• (to cry out): din

Translations

Anagrams

• Colmar, molrac

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin clāmōrem (“a shout, cry”), from clāmō (“cry out, complain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)
• Rhymes: -o(ɾ)

Noun

clamor m or f (plural clamors)

1. clamor

   Synonym: clam

References

• “clamor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Latin

Alternative forms

• clāmōs (Old Latin form, found in Ennius and Lucretius)

Etymology

From Old Latin clāmōs, from clāmō (“complain, cry out”) +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈklaː.mor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkla.mor/,

Noun

clāmor m (genitive clāmōris); third declension

1. a shout, shouting
2. an acclamation, applause
3. a clamor, cry, outcry, protest
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.222:

     “ clāmōrēs simul horrendōs ad sīdera tollit .”

     “ at the same time he raises horrible cries up to heaven .”

4. a noise, sound

   Synonyms: clangor, strepitus, fragor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

Descendants

• French: clameur
  • → English: clamor, clamour
• → Italian: clamore
• → Portuguese: clamor
• → Spanish: clamor

References

• “clamor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “clamor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• clamor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• clamor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to elicit loud applause: clamores (coronae) facere, excitare
    
  • to raise a shout, a cry: clamorem tollere (Liv. 3. 28)
    

Old French

Alternative forms

• clamour
• clamur

Etymology

From Latin clāmor, clāmōrem.

Noun

clamor oblique singular, m (oblique plural clamors, nominative singular clamors, nominative plural clamor)

1. clamor (continued shouting and uproar)

Descendants

• English: clamor, clamour
• French: clameur

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin clāmōrem.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: cla‧mor

Noun

clamor m (plural clamores)

1. din (loud noise)

   Synonyms: estrépido, algazarra

Related terms

• clamar
• clamoroso
• chamar

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin clāmōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klaˈmoɾ/
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: cla‧mor

Noun

clamor m (plural clamores)

1. a clamor, shout
2. a protest, outcry
3. a loud noise

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “clamor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014