Clepe

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /kliːp/

Definitions

1. To call or name someone or something by a particular title or term
2. To give a specified name or designation to a person or object
3. To refer to someone or something using a chosen name or label

Etymology: "Clepe" is a word that has largely retreated into literature, but it once meant simply to call out. Its Old English ancestor "cleopian" and "clipian" meant to speak loudly, cry out, or summon, and the sense of calling someone by a name grew naturally from calling them over. That is the whole arc: a shout became a naming, and the naming survived long after the shouting faded. The word's deeper roots are in sound. Its Proto-Germanic form "klipōną" meant "to ring" or "to sound," and that same imitative idea survives in related words across the Germanic languages. Dutch "kleppen" still means to toll a bell or chatter, and Middle Low German "kleppen" meant to strike or sound. English kept the sense of making a noise to attract attention, then narrowed toward attaching a designation to a thing or person.

Synonyms: call, name