clamorous

English

WOTD – 18 September 2016

Alternative forms

• clamourous (archaic)

Etymology

clamor +‎ -ous; compare Latin clāmōrōsus and French clamoreux (obsolete), from Latin clāmōrem.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈklæməɹəs/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cla‧mor‧ous

Adjective

clamorous (comparative more clamorous, superlative most clamorous)

1. Of or pertaining to clamor.
   1. Of great intensity. (of sounds)

      Synonym: loud

      a clamorous fire alarm

      • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

        […] he took the bride about the neck,
        And kiss’d her lips with such a clamorous smack
        That at the parting all the church did echo.

      • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 200:

        […] the sound [of laughter] ceased, only for an instant; it began again, louder: for at first, though distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber;

   2. Creating a loud noise. (of people, animals or things)

      Synonym: noisy

      clamorous trumpets

      • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, 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 II, scene ii]:

        The clamorous owl that nightly hoots

   3. Expressed loudly. (of emotions or feelings)
      • 1769, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments‎^[1], London: A. Millar, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 4, p. 42:

        We are disgusted with that clamorous grief, which, without any delicacy, calls upon our compassion with sighs and tears and importunate lamentations.

      • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 18, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 226:

        […] in the clamorous happiness of Lydia herself in bidding farewell, the more gentle adieus of her sisters were uttered without being heard.

   4. Filled with or accompanied by a great deal of noise. (of times, places, events or activities)

      Synonym: noisy

      a clamorous market

      • 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, page 49:

        Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor
        Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the morning.

      • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 11, in A Fine Balance‎^[2], London: Faber & Faber, page 425:

        […] he tried rising late, but the clamorous dawn, filled with clanging milkmen and argumentative crows, was always victorious.

   5. (of people or speech) Insistently expressing a desire for something.

      Synonym: vociferous

      • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

        Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds
        Rather than make unprofited return.

      • 1656, William Sanderson, A Compleat History of the Lives and Reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland, and of […] James the Sixth, King of Scotland, and […] King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, the First‎^[3], London, page 418:

        […] Overbury in the mean time might write clamorous and furious Letters to his Friends,

      • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations‎^[4], London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 7, Part 1, p. 148:

        The people became clamorous to get land, and the rich and the great, we may believe, were perfectly determined not to give them any part of theirs.

      • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 2, in Ruth‎^[5], volume 3, London: Chapman and Hall, page 58:

        They were clamorous for an expedition to the hills, before the calm stillness of the autumn should be disturbed by storms.

2. Having especially (and often unpleasantly) bright or contrasting colours or patterns.

   Synonyms: garish, gaudy, loud

   • 1970, Patrick White, chapter 6, in The Vivisector‎^[6], New York: Avon, published 1980, page 376:

     She led them along a path edged with round, whitewashed stones and equally rounded basils of a clamorous green.

   • 2015, John Irving, chapter 9, in Avenue of the Mysteries‎^[7], New York: Simon and Schuster, page 99:

     It was impossible to overlook the clamorous parrots on the new missionary’s Hawaiian shirt.

Synonyms

• clamorsome

Derived terms

• clamorously

Translations

noisy and loud

• Armenian: խռովահույզ (hy) (xṙovahuyz)
• Catalan: clamorós
• Czech: hlučný (cs), halasný
• Greek:

  Ancient: θορυβώδης (thorubṓdēs)

• Gujarati: કકળાટિયું (kakaḷāṭiyũ), ઘોંઘાટિયું (ghoṅghāṭiyũ)
• Irish: béiceach, ardghlórach, callánach
• Portuguese: clamoroso
• Spanish: clamoroso (es)
• Ukrainian: галасливий m (halaslyvyj), крикливий m (kryklyvyj)