Word of the Day

adjective

Clamant students gathered outside the college president's office, protesting the denial of tenure for the popular professor.

"My clamant desire, clamant need, for some protected wilderness in the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana … sometimes doesn’t jibe with some people’s conceptual images of an environmentalist." — From Rick Bass's 2008 memoir Why I Came West

"Clamant" is considerably less common than its synonym "clamorous." As the similarities in spelling might suggest, these two words are etymologically related, both coming from the Latin verb "clamare," meaning "to cry out or shout." Another relative is the noun "claimant," meaning "one that asserts a right or title." The paths from "clamare" to "clamorous" and "claimant" follow routes that lead through Anglo-French. "Clamant," however, comes directly from Latin, deriving from "clamant-, clamans," the present participle of the verb "clamare."

Test Your Memory: What is the meaning of "traduce," our Word of the Day from January 18? The answer is ...

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