Clubs

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /klʌbz/

Definitions

1. Groups of people organized for a common purpose or activity ; blunt weapons or heavy tools used to hit ; one of the four suits in a deck of playing cards, marked with a three-leaf shape
2. Associations or organizations formed by members sharing interests ; thick sticks or bat-like implements used for striking ; a symbol representing clubs in card games, often shaped like a clover
3. Collections of individuals joined for social or recreational reasons ; hand-held objects used for hitting or beating ; a playing card category distinguished by a trefoil emblem

Etymology: The word "clubs" is simply the third-person singular present form of "club," so its history belongs to the noun "club" in the sense of an organized social group. Yet that sense is a late development on top of an older, much heavier object. "Club" began as a cudgel: a thick stick or staff used as a weapon, borrowed into Middle English from Old Norse "klubba" or "klumba," meaning the same thing. Behind the Norse word lies a Proto-Germanic root meaning "clip, clasp" or "clump, lump," which also gave English "clump" and "cloud," and the Latin "globus" and "glomus" are doublets of the same idea. The shared sense is of something rounded and compact, a mass of material gathered into one heavy shape, which fits a knobbed wooden club. The same idea of a gathered bunch explains why the card suit and the cudgel share a name in English, though the sense of people gathering together came much later.

Synonyms: associations, societies