English
Etymology
From the OE. verb cleopian.
Pronunciation
IPA|/kli:p/
Verb
en-verb|clepes|cleping|cleped or clept|cleped, clept or yclept
- obsolete To call, name.
Quotations
1385: Geoffery Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde s:Troilus and Criseyde/Book V|Book 5, lines 760-745,
:For that that som men blamen ever yit,
:Lo, other maner folk commenden it.
:And as for me, for al swich variaunce,
:Felicitee clepe I my suffisaunce.
c. 1388: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, "The Legend of Dido", s:The Legend of Good Women/The Legend of Dido|lines 943-945
:And on his bakke he bar and with him ledde
:His olde fader, cleped Anchises,
:And by the weye his wyf Creusa he lees.
1380s: Hebrews 3:1-2 of the Bible (s:Bible (Wycliffe)/Ebrews|John Wycliffe version)
:Therfor, hooli britheren, and parceneris of heuenli cleping, biholde ye the apostle and the bischop of oure confessioun, Jhesu, which is trewe to hym that made hym, as also Moises in al the hous of hym. � Hebrews 3:1-2 s:Bible (Wycliffe)/Ebrews|John Wycliffe version.
1593: Shakespeare, s:Venus and Adonis|Venus and Adonis
:She clepes him king of graves, and grave for kings,
:Imperious supreme of all mortal things.
1606: Shakespeare, Macbeth, s:The_Tragedy_of_Macbeth#SCENE_I._Forres._The_palace.|Act 3 Scene 1
:As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
:Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept
:All by the name of dogs.
1900: A. W. Pollard, editor|ed, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: The Version of the Cotton Manuscript in Modern Spelling
:And there is a great hill, that men clepe Olympus, that departeth Macedonia and Thrace.
:[...]
:For men sell a gum, that men clepe turpentine, instead of balm, and they put thereto a little balm for to give good odour.
1922: James Joyce, Ulysses
:And there came against the place as they stood a young learning knight yclept Dixon.
2001: Glen David Gold, Carter Beats the Devil
:World traveling sorcerer supreme Charles Carter, yclept Carter the Mysterious, has made a startling discovery that makes the news from Europe seem mild indeed.''
Usage notes
The verb is obsolete, except for the past participle yclept which is sometimes used as a deliberate archaism.
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