clarion
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈklæ.ɹɪ.ən/
ipa: /ˈklæ.ɹi.ən/
ipa: /ˈklɛ-/
rhymes: -æɹiən
Forms: form: clarions
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English clarion, clarioun (“trumpet with a narrow tube and a shrill sound, clarion; clarion player”) [and other forms], 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”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, summon; to cry”).
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The clarion’s call to action has been heard.
text: Then ſtrait commands that at the warlike ſound / Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard / His mighty Standard; […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 531–533:
text: And like a silver clarion rung / The accents of that unknown tongue, / Excelsior!
ref: 1841 September 28 (date written), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 129:
text: 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, […]
ref: 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 33–34:
text: 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:– […]
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Triumph”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 234:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Others [i.e., other birds] on ground / Walk'd firm; the creſted Cock whoſe clarion ſounds / The ſilent hours, and th' other whoſe gay Traine / Adorns him, colour'd with the Florid hue / Of Rainbows and Starrie Eyes.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 442–446:
text: And his this Drum, vvhoſe hoarſe heroic baſe / Drovvns the loud Clarion of the braying Aſs.
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Second”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 26, lines 213–214:
text: The cock's ſhrill clarion, or the ecchoing horn, / No more ſhall rouſe them from their lovvly bed.
ref: 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, →OCLC, page 29:
text: [K]indling Nations buckle on their mail, / And Fame, with clarion-blast and wings unfurl'd, / To freedom and revenge awakens an injured World!
ref: 1811, Walter Scott, The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, stanza LXII, page 54:
text: O chanticleer, / Your clarion blow; the day is near.
ref: 1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Birds of Passage.] Daybreak.”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 195:
glosses: The sound of a clarion (sense 1), or any sound resembling the loud, high-pitched note of a clarion.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: An organ stop consisting of pipes with reeds giving a high-pitched note like that of a clarion (sense 1).
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The middle register of the clarinet.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
synonyms: clarichord
rest
sufflue
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: clarion call
clarionet
clarionetist
clarionettist