clepe

English

Alternative forms

• cleep, clip
• clep, clipe, claip, clype (Scotland)

Etymology

From Middle English clepen, clepien, from Old English cleopian, clipian (“to speak, cry out, call, summon, invoke, cry to, implore”), from Proto-Germanic *klipōną (“to ring, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *gal- (“to sound”). Cognate with Old Frisian klippa, kleppa (“to ring”), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Dutch kleppen (“to toll, chatter”), Middle Low German kleppen (“to strike, sound”), Middle Low German kleperen (“to rattle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kliːp/
• Rhymes: -iːp

Verb

clepe (third-person singular simple present clepes, present participle cleping, simple past cleped or clept, past participle cleped or clept or clepen or yclept)

1. (intransitive, archaic or dialectal) To give a call; cry out; appeal.
2. (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To call; call upon; cry out to.
3. (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To call to oneself; invite; summon.
4. (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To call; call by the name of; name.
   • 1593, Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, lines 995–996:

     She clepes him king of graues, & graue for kings, / Imperious ſupreme of all mortall things.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 369:

     And there came against the place as they stood a young learning knight yclept Dixon.

   • 2001, Glen David Gold, chapter 8, in Carter Beats the Devil‎^[1], Hachette Books, →ISBN:

     World traveling sorcerer supreme Charles Carter, yclept Carter the Mysterious, has made a startling discovery that makes the news from Europe seem mild indeed.

5. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal, often with 'on') To tell lies about; inform against (someone).
6. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To be loquacious; tattle; gossip.
7. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To report; relate; tell.

Usage notes

The verb is obsolete, except in certain dialects or when used in the past participle yclept which is sometimes used as a deliberate archaism, or as an idiomatic set phrase: aptly yclept.

Synonyms

• (call by the name of): designate, dub, name; see also Thesaurus:denominate
• (tell lies about; inform against): grass, snitch; see also Thesaurus:rat out
• (be loquacious; tattle; gossip): blab; see also Thesaurus:gossip or Thesaurus:chatter

Derived terms

• beclepe

Noun

clepe (plural clepes)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A cry; an appeal; a call.
   • a. 1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, transl., “Virgil’s Æneid”, in Geo. Fred. Nott, editor, The Works of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey and of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, volume I, London: T. Bensley, published 1815, book II, page 124, lines 1021–1024:

     So bold was I to show my voice that night / With clepes, and cries, to fill the street throughout / With Creuse’ name in sorrow, with vain tears ; / And often-sithes the same for to repeat.

Anagrams

• cleep

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) clepe

1. second-person singular present active imperative of clepō

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Spanish

Etymology

From French crêpe.

Noun

clepe m (plural clepes)

1. (Louisiana) crepe

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Yola

Verb

clepe

1. to call, to name to clepe

References

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)