Clent

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An obsolete term for a rough, stony hill or rocky outcrop ; a village and range of hills in Worcestershire, England
2. An archaic word meaning a craggy rock face or stony height ; the name of a Worcestershire village set among the Clent Hills
3. A rarely used old word for a rocky elevation ; a English village in Worcestershire known for its surrounding hills

Etymology: The word survives mostly in place names. The Clent Hills in Worcestershire, south-west of Birmingham, take their name from it, and the word itself meant a rough, rocky hill or outcrop. It is an Old English term, and it is probably related to the Old Norse "klettr," meaning cliff or crag, and to the dialect English "clint," a word for a limestone or rock outcrop, especially in northern England. The shared sense of rock standing up out of the ground suggests a common Germanic root, though the exact ancestry is uncertain. Because the word was rare in ordinary speech, its survival depends on how the land was named. Place-name scholars treat it as a useful clue to the landscape, marking spots where bare stone broke through the soil.