Cleped

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Named or called by a particular word or title
2. Known or referred to by a specific name
3. Designated or addressed by a given appellation

Etymology: "Cleped" is an archaic past participle meaning "called" or "named," as in the phrase "a man cleped Smith." It is a form of the verb "clepe," which English inherited from Old English "clypian," meaning "to call out" or "to cry aloud." That Old English verb is the same root that gave modern English "clepe"'s close relative "yclept," where the Middle English prefix "y-" (from Old English "ge-") was a common marker of past participles. Over the centuries the verb was used mainly in literary and legal English, and Chaucer and other Middle English writers used it freely. By the early modern period it had become a deliberate archaism, which is why Shakespeare-era and later writers reached for it when they wanted an old-fashioned or mock-antique tone.

Synonyms: called, named, termed