Also 7 clangue. [Found first late in 16th c.; app. formed immediately from, or in conjunction with, CLANG v.1 Cf. L. clangor ‘sound of a trumpet, shrill scream of birds,’ which were also the earliest senses of clang. (Thence also F. clangueur, and clangueux adj. ‘loudly ringing.’ Cotgr.). The Latin vb. and sb. were prob. etymologically cognate with Gr. κλάζειν, κλαγγή, in same senses; but Ger. klang ‘sound, musical sound’ (MHG. klanc (klanges), OHG. chlang) is not related to these, being an echoic word which has separately arisen in German. No trace of any such word is known in OE. or ME.: see however CLANK. The adoption and use of clang in modern English have doubtless been greatly influenced by the echoic nature of the word, by which it is associated directly with certain sounds, independently of its derivation; cf. clang-clang, cling-clang, as imitations of the sound of a bell. From this cause also the central sense of clang has now shifted from that of L. clangor; on the other hand, some writers have used it as identical with Gr. κλαγγή or Ger. klang above mentioned.]
1. A loud resonant ringing sound; orig., as in Latin, that of a trumpet, and so still in literary use; but now, most characteristically, the ringing sound of metal when struck, as in ‘the clang of arms’; sometimes also the sound of a large bell.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 207. Loud larums, neighing steeds, and trumpetts clangue.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., III. 186. The continuall clangs of trumpets and timbrels.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, III. 55. In the clang of arms To die for him whom I have lived to serve.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. xxxviii. The clang of conflict on the heath.
1851. Hawthorne, Snow Image, Main Street. A blacksmith makes huge clang … on his anvil.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 111. Now through the hush there broke the trumpet’s clang.
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 357. The clang of the city bell called every citizen to his door.
b. Also, occasionally, in other applications, as the twang of a bow [after Gr. κλαγγή], the ringing sound of voices, the bang of a door, etc.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lv. 16. The clang of dissonant languages … resounded throughout the camp.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. I. 4. Terrible was heard the clang Of that resplendent bow.
c. fig. (Here Ger. klang ‘sound’ has often influenced the use.)
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., V. xvi. 196. As it was not expressed by the Root but by the Square, for concealment sake; so for the same reason not by the perfect Square, there being so smart a clang of the Root it self at the end of it.
1825. Carlyle, in Froude’s Life (1882), I. 325. By some occasional unmelodious clang in the newspapers.
1858. Longf., Oliver Basselin, viii. The poet sang … Songs that rang Another clang.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), V. xlii. 171. A clang of turgid extravagances.
2. The loud harsh resonant cry or scream of certain birds. (As in Latin and Greek.)
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 422. And [Birds] soaring th’ air sublime With clang despis’d the ground.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 108. Their [cranes’] loud Clang From Cloud to Cloud rebounds.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xiii. 51. During the nocturnal migrations of geese and other waterfowl, sonorous clangs from the van may be heard … answered by clangs in the rear.
3. Acoustics. = Ger. klang: see quot.
1867. Tyndall, Lect. Sound, iii. § 9 (1883), 115. An assemblage of tones, such as we obtain when the fundamental tone and the harmonics of a string sound together, is called by the Germans a Klang. May we not employ the English word clang to denote the same thing … and may we not … add the word colour or tint, to denote the character of the clang, using the term clang-tint as the equivalent of Klangfarbe?
1879. G. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 96. The word clang has been suggested to denote such a composite sound. All the possible partial tones are not necessarily present in a clang.
4. Comb. clang-clang, imitation of the ringing of a bell; clang-tint, in Acoustics: see 3.
1867. [see 3.]
1877. Burnet, Ear, 193. The quality of a sound, also called its clang-tint or timbre.
1884. Illustr. Lond. News, 16 Feb., 162/3. A silence only broken by the clang-clang of the church bell.
Hence Clangful a. nonce-wd. [after Ger. klangvoll], sonorous.
1866. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. Introd. p. xx. Our own clangful Northern folk-speech.
