Friday, January 30, 2009

Today's new word is CLAMANT

Actually, this was yesterday's, but I got a bit bogged down looking through google entries and went to bed. Here's the reference
    We are content not to know the deep things of God. . . ponder the things He has said until we hear their clamant call, and obey." G. Campbell Morgan.
I didn't have a problem understanding the meaning--thought it might be something to do with "claim," because that is how I would pronounce it. But you just never know, so I looked it up. Big fat dining room dictionary says, it comes from the Latin clamare meaning to call, see claim. However, the meaning is "crying out, clamorous, loud, demanding notice, or urgent." I really don't get a sense of urgency in the word "claim." Like "quit claim deed," or as the CW song goes
You claimed you loved me,
but I was suspicious when
you dated three
of my best fren

So I checked google, and after about 40 entries that were just dictionaries, including Vietnamese, or were in Latin (clamant is 3rd person plural verb apparently), I decided no one is using it much these days, so there's no clamant call to learn or remember it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Murray sez:
I have never used nor ever heard of the word clamant. But maybe it did come into play when my high school english teacher told me to leave the room.