klaxon

English

WOTD – 6 August 2018

Etymology

A warning sign on a rural road in the United States advising drivers to “sound klaxon”

A dive alert, or klaxon, aboard a World War II United States Navy submarine

From the trademark Klaxon, based on Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “make a sharp sound; scream”). The word was coined by Franklyn Hallett Lovell Jr., the founder of the Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, USA, which in 1908 obtained a licence of the patent to the machine generating the sound from American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944).

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æksən
• Hyphenation: klax‧on

Noun

klaxon (plural klaxons)

1. A loud electric alarm or horn, especially as used in automobiles in the early 20th century. [from 1908]
   • 1922 October, Michael Arlen, “Book the Third: The Antagonists. Chapter V.”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London; Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., […], published August 1924, →OCLC, section 1, page 188:

     And she went so swiftly that he could only follow her to the door. The large shape of the car swallowed her up; and the car twisted softly around the little drive and away to the London road. Minutes later he heard its Klaxon, just one sharp keen, like the harsh cry of a sea-bird. …

   • 1940 October 21, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 42, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC; republished London: Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, 1949 (13th printing), →OCLC, page 386:

     There was a motor car behind them now and it blasted into the truck noise and the dust with its klaxon again and again; then flashed on lights that showed the dust like a solid yellow cloud and surged past them in a whining rise of gears and a demanding, threatening, bludgeoning of klaxoning.

   • 1962 September, James Jones, chapter 2, in The Thin Red Line, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC, page 73:

     They could hear a lot more than they could see. But what they heard told them exactly nothing. There were the klaxons, which kept up their long, monotonous, insane growling protest all through the raid.

   • 2007, Thomas E. Lightburn, chapter 11, in The Shield and the Shark, Cambridge: Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 173:

     When the claxon sounded they immediately stopped what they were doing and uncovered the Oerlikon. Paddy, who was ammunition feeder, stood by while Jock trained the 20mm gun around.

   • 2010 November, Brad R. Torgersen, “Outbound”, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume CXXX, number 11, Norwalk, Conn.: Dell Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 84; reprinted as “Outbound”, in Stanley Schmidt, editor, Into the New Millennium: Trailblazing Tales from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2000–2010, Norwalk, Conn.: Penny Publications, 2011, →ISBN, column 1:

     Irenka was up front using the lavatory when the lights in the cabin went red and the klaxon sounded over the speakers.

Alternative forms

• claxon

Descendants

• → Arabic: كْلَاكْسُون (klāksūn)
  • → Egyptian Arabic: كلاكس (kalaks)
• → Belarusian: кла́ксан (kláksan)
• → Bulgarian: кла́ксон (klákson)
• → Catalan: claxon
• → Czech: klaxon
• → Dutch: claxon
  • → Indonesian: klakson
• → French: klaxon
• → Galician: claxon
• → Georgian: კლაქსონი (ḳlaksoni)
• → Greek: κλάξον (kláxon)
• → Hindi: क्लाक्सोन (klākson)
• → Japanese: クラクション (kurakushon)
• → Korean: 클락션 (keullaksyeon)
• → Latvian: klaksons
• → Polish: klakson
• → Portuguese: cláxon
• → Romanian: claxon
• → Slovak: klaksón
• → Spanish: claxon
• → Ukrainian: кла́ксон (klákson)
• → Uzbek: klakson

Translations

loud electric horn or alarm

• Arabic: بُوق m (būq), كْلَاكْسُون m (klāksūn)
• Armenian: շչակ (hy) (ščʻak), սիգնալ (hy) (signal) (colloquial)
• Belarusian: клаксо́н m (klaksón), кла́ксан m (kláksan)
• Bulgarian: кла́ксон (bg) m (klákson)
• Catalan: clàxon (ca) m, botzina (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喇叭 (zh) (lǎba)

• Czech: klakson (cs) m, klaxon m
• Dutch: claxon (nl) m
• Esperanto: aŭtokorno
• Finnish: äänitorvi (fi)
• French: klaxon (fr) m
• Galician: bucina (gl) f, claxon m
• Georgian: კლაქსონი (ka) (ḳlaksoni)
• German: Hupe (de) f
• Greek: κλάξον (el) n (kláxon)
• Hindi: क्लाक्सोन (klākson)
• Indonesian: klakson (id)
• Japanese: クラクション (ja) (kurakushon)
• Korean: 클락션 (keullaksyeon)
• Latvian: klaksons m
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: کلاکسون (kelâksôn), بوق (fa) (buq)
• Polish: klakson (pl) m
• Portuguese: klaxon (pt) m, cláxon m
• Romanian: claxon (ro) n
• Russian: клаксо́н (ru) m (klaksón), кла́ксон (ru) m (klákson), гудо́к (ru) m (gudók)
• Slovak: klaksón m
• Spanish: claxon m, bocina (es) f
• Turkish: klakson (tr), korna (tr)
• Ukrainian: клаксо́н m (klaksón), кла́ксон m (klákson)
• Uzbek: klakson
• Vietnamese: còi (vi), còi điện

Verb

klaxon (third-person singular simple present klaxons, present participle klaxoning, simple past and past participle klaxoned)

1. (intransitive) To produce a loud, siren-like wail.
   • 1980, John Domatilla [pseudonym; Ian Kennedy Martin], The Last Crime, London: Heinemann, →ISBN; republished [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Lulu Press, 2012, →ISBN, page 50:

     He headed down the Embankment. It was noon precisely. Big Ben klaxoned the hour with blasts of servo whistle.

   • 2005 January, John Shirley, chapter 16, in Constantine: A Novelization [...] Based on Characters from the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer Graphic Novels, Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Star Books, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 252:

     Suffering. It was like a great discordant symphony ringing out from the world; like a klaxoning of a million million cracked bells.

   • 2015 December, A. Merc Rustad, “Tomorrow When We See the Sun”, in John Joseph Adams, editor, Lightspeed‎^[1], number 67, archived from the original on 15 August 2017, section II; reprinted in John Joseph Adams, editor, Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-away Galaxies, New York, N.Y.: Saga Press, Simon & Schuster, 2017, →ISBN, pages 187–188:

     Century stops before an eel-ship, coiled in jewel-skinned splendor. Its great eye-ports are open, and Century signals with a hand; the eel extends a proboscis lined with diamond mesh and graphene plates like a ramp. Century leads Mere into the eel's body. Alarms klaxon in Mere's head—its escape is known.

Derived terms

• klaxoning (noun)

Further reading

• vehicle horn – klaxon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English klaxon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈklakson]

Noun

klaxon m inan

1. horn (loud alarm, especially on a motor vehicle)

Declension

Declension of klaxon (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	klaxon	klaxony
genitive	klaxonu	klaxonů
dative	klaxonu	klaxonům
accusative	klaxon	klaxony
vocative	klaxone	klaxony
locative	klaxonu	klaxonech
instrumental	klaxonem	klaxony

Alternative forms

• klakson

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English klaxon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klak.sɔn/, /klak.sɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

Noun

klaxon m (plural klaxons)

1. horn (of car)

Derived terms

• klaxonner

Further reading

• “klaxon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English klaxon.

Noun

klaxon m (plural klaxons)

1. klaxon (a type of loud electric horn)

   Synonyms: cláxon, clácson

Further reading

• “klaxon”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026