clarion

See also: Clarion and clarión

English
WOTD – 22 November 2022

Pronunciation
A statue depicting the Herald of Victory sounding a clarion (sense 1), atop the Grand Army Plaza Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
The coat of arms of Sir Thomas Grenville II (c. 1453 – c. 1513) features three clarions (sense 3) or (gold).
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈklæ.ɹɪ.ən/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈklæ.ɹi.ən/, /ˈklɛ-/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -æɹiən
  • Hyphenation: clar‧i‧on

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English clarion, clarioun (“trumpet with a narrow tube and a shrill sound, clarion; clarion player”) [and other forms],[1] from Old French claron, clarïon (“clarion”) [and other forms], from Medieval Latin clāriōn, clario, clārōn (“clarion; trumpet”), from Latin clārus (“audible; clear, distinct, loud; (visually) bright, clear”),[2] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, summon; to cry”).

The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.[2][3]

Noun

clarion (plural clarions)

  1. (music, historical or poetic) A medieval brass instrument chiefly used as a battle signal; related to the trumpet, it had a narrow, straight pipe and a high-pitched, piercing sound.
    The clarion’s call to action has been heard.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 531–533:
      Then ſtrait commands that at the warlike ſound / Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard / His mighty Standard; […]
    • 1841 September 28​, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, OCLC 978271908, stanza 2, page 129:
      And like a silver clarion rung / The accents of that unknown tongue, / Excelsior!
    • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, OCLC 1184564533, pages 33–34:
      There is no bard in all the choir, / Nor Homer's self, the poet sire, / […] / Nor Collins' verse of tender pain, / Nor Byron's clarion of disdain, / […] / Not one of all can put in verse, / Or to this presence could rehearse, / The sights and voices ravishing / The boy knew on the hills in spring, […]
      A figurative use.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Triumph”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017, page 234:
      Blind me, take away mine eyes, and let the darkness utterly fence me in, and still mine ears would catch the tone of thy unforgotten voice, striking more loud against the portals of my sense than can the call of brazen-throated clarions:– […]
  2. (by extension)
    1. (poetic) The sound of a clarion (sense 1), or any sound resembling the loud, high-pitched note of a clarion.
    2. (music) An organ stop consisting of pipes with reeds giving a high-pitched note like that of a clarion (sense 1).
  3. (heraldry) A charge thought to represent a type of wind instrument, a keyboard instrument like a spinet, or perhaps a rest used by a knight to support a lance during jousting.
    Synonyms: clarichord, clavicord, rest, sufflue
Derived terms
Translations

Adjective

clarion (not comparable)

  1. Of a sound, a voice, a message, etc.: brilliantly clear.
    her clarion top notes
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English clariounen (“of a horn or trumpet: to blow, sound”),[4] from clarioun (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs).[5] Later uses may also be derived directly from the noun.[6]

Verb

clarion (third-person singular simple present clarions, present participle clarioning, simple past and past participle clarioned) (rare)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To announce or herald (something) using a clarion (noun sense 1).
      1. (figuratively) To announce or herald (something) clearly, especially so as to stir or unite people.
        • 1946, Rebecca Rogers, They Ask for Bread, New York, N.Y.: Rockport Press Publishers, OCLC 2309854, page 16:
          His deep voice clarioned the words and he paused, hearing them whisper away into their last faint echoes in the organ loft.
        • 1997, Cedric J[ames] Robinson, “The Search for Higher Ground”, in Black Movements in America (Revolutionary Thought/Radical Movements), New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 144:
          He [Martin Luther King Jr.] clarioned a call to action that was heard wherever Afro-Christians could be found (and beyond, if one recalls Pentecostalism).
        • 2004, Brian Keenan, “First Footfalls in Fairbanks”, in Four Quarters of Light: A Journey through Alaska, London; Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 28:
          All around me the tamaracks, alder birches and willows would send up amber and golden flares clarioning the winter; […]
    2. (also figuratively) Of a thing: to cause (a place) to echo with a sound like that of a clarion.
  2. (intransitive) To sound a clarion; also, to make a high-pitched, piercing sound like that of a clarion.
Derived terms
Translations

References
  1. “clariǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “clarion, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “clarion, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. “clarion, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. “clariǒunen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  5. “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  6. Compare “clarion, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.

Further reading

Anagrams
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