Also 8–9 -el, 9 -elle, and in Fr. form clientèle. [ad. L. clientēla the relation of client, clientship, a body of clients, f. client-em CLIENT. This seems to have been taken immediately from Latin in the 16th c., to have become obs. in the 17th (it is noted as Obs. in Webster 1864), and to have been re-adopted from French in the middle of the 19th, in sense 3; hence it is often pronounced wholly or partly as Fr.]
† 1. The relation, position or status of a client; clientship. Obs.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, III. viii. 123. Vargunteius … under the pretext of clientele And visitation, with the morning haile, Will be admitted.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 126. Redeemed from the Clientele and Vassallage of the Nobility.
1875. N. Amer. Rev., CXX. 456. From the very exaggeration of the aristocratic regime…. there rose an institution, the clientel.
† b. Protection of clients, patronage. Obs.
1611. Coryat, Crudities. It … enioyeth great peace vnder their sacred clientele and protection.
a. 1662. Heylin, Hist. Presbyterians, 96. Under the Clientele or Patronage of some juster Governor.
1692. Coles, Clientele.
2. A body of clients or dependants; all who are under the patronage and protection of any person; a body of professed adherents; a following.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 246/1. So should be placed more of the popes clientele in the churches of France, than of the proper inhabitants of the land.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., IV. vi. (1654), 347. Those of the Roman Clientele are not more careful.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. i. 7. The clientele of some patrician house.
b. with pl.
1721–66. Bailey, Clientels, persons under Protection or Vassallage.
3. Now often applied (as in Fr.) to the whole professional connection of a lawyer, physician, etc.; also a body of supporters, customers, or frequenters generally, as ‘the clientele of a theater,’ etc.
1865. Daily Tel., 12 June, 5/4. The enterprising commercial classes of the North, who already have despatched immense stocks of merchandise to the South, and opened large credits for their former clientelle there.
1880. T. B. Aldrich, in Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 306/2. The clientèle of Snelling’s bar-room.
1882. Med. Temp. Jrnl., I. 50. The … high esteem in which he is held by his extensive clientele.
Hence † Clienteled a., having a clientele.
1613. Acc. Anglesea (1860), 49. These that glory to see themselves well clienteled, and are the best Jury mungers.
