# exclaim
## English
### Alternative forms

* exclame [16th–17th c.]

### Etymology

From Middle French exclamer, from Latin exclāmō, exclāmāre (“call out”), from ex- + clāmō (“to call”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɛkˈskleɪm/, /ɪkˈskleɪm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪm

### Verb

exclaim (third-person singular simple present exclaims, present participle exclaiming, simple past and past participle exclaimed)
* (intransitive) To cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.
** 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:I am a soldier, and unapt to weep, Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.
** 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 9, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book 1, page 33:Very grave and good Women exclaimed against Men who begot Children and then disowned them.
** 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:This wretched note was the finale of Emma’s breakfast. When once it had been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim.
** 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1985, page 114:[…] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]
** 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child‎, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285:[…] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.
* (transitive) To say suddenly and with strong emotion.
** 1603, Michael Drayton, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince”, in The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second‎, London: N. Ling, page 31:Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong? Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long? Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare, Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.
** 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 40, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 28:[…] her aunt, after having stared at me a good while with a look of amazement, exclaimed, “In the name of heaven! Who art thou?”—
** 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:Without returning any direct reply, Miss Squeers, all at once, fell into a paroxysm of spiteful tears, and exclaimed that she was a wretched, neglected, miserable castaway.
** 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
** 2017, André Aciman, “Manfred”, in Enigma Variations‎, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 135:You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.

#### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:shout

#### Derived terms

* exclaimer

#### Translations
### Noun

exclaim (plural exclaims)
* (obsolete) Exclamation; outcry, clamor.
** 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 2]:Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not; For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell, Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
** 1635, John Donne, His parting form her:Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].