"C" Word Origins

clickbait

English

A compound of click, as in clicking a link, and bait, something used to lure.

clicker

English

From "click" — a word imitating a short, sharp sound — plus the agent suffix "-er," giving "a thing that clicks." The animal-training sense is the older one: the term comes from a small metal cricket noisemaker, adapted from a child's toy, used to mark the behaviour a trainer wants. The video-game sense is much newer, emerging in the early 2010s alongside games like Cow Clicker and becoming widespread after Cookie Clicker in 2013.

client

Latin

From Latin cliens, a citizen under the protection of a wealthier patron, related to clinare 'to lean'.

clientele

Latin

Borrowed from French clientèle, ultimately from Latin cliens, "client."

cliff

Old English

From Old English clif, meaning "steep rock face."

cliffdrop

Origin

From cliff + drop.

cliffhanger

Origin

From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate. The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with the serialized version of Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, in which the character Henry Knight is left hanging off of a cliff. It was inspired by a real life story from his wife Emma's childhood, when she had to rescue one of her school friends from a similar position.

Clifford

Old English

From Old English clif ("cliff") plus ford ("ford"), originally describing someone who lived near a river crossing by a cliff.

Clifton

Old English

From Old English clif ("cliff") plus tun ("town"), literally "town by the cliff."

climate

Greek

From Greek klima, "inclination, latitude" — ancient geographers divided the earth into zones ("climates") based on the angle of the sun.

climate change

Greek

Climate is from Greek klima, a slope or region of the earth, via Latin; change is from Old French changier, from Latin cambiare 'to exchange'.

climatic

Origin

From "climate" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ic."

climatory

Origin

From climate + -ory.

climax

Greek

From Greek klimax, "ladder, staircase," used figuratively for a rhetorical build-up to a peak point.

climb

Old English

From Old English climban, "to climb," related to Old Norse and German words meaning to cling or stick — the same ancient root gave us "clay" and "glue," reflecting the idea of gripping something as you climb.

climbdown

Origin

From climb + down.

climber

Middle English

From Middle English clymbere, clymber (“one who climbs, climber”), from climben (“to climb; to ascend, fly upward, rise; to slope upwards; to approach God in prayer; to advance; to overcome, triumph; to aspire; to be presumptuous”) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns). The English word is analysable as climb (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

climbing

Middle English

From Middle English clymbyng, clymbynge; equivalent to climb + -ing.

clime

Origin

Borrowed from Latin clima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα (klíma, “(zone of) latitude”, literally “inclination”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to slope, incline”). See also climate.

clinch

Origin · 1500

A 16th-century respelling of "clench" — originally about hammering a nail flat so it can't work loose, later widened to mean "make firm" or "settle for good."

clincher

Origin

From clinch + -er — literally "the thing that clinches" a matter.

cline

Ancient Greek · 1938

From Ancient Greek klīnō, "to lean" or "slope" — coined in 1938 by biologist Julian Huxley to describe gradual biological variation.

cling

Old English

From Old English clingan, "to adhere" or "hold fast," from an old Germanic root also seen in Danish klynge, "to cluster."

clingsome

Origin

From cling + -some.

clingy

Origin

From cling + the adjective-forming suffix -y.

clinic

Late Latin

Via French clinique from Late Latin clinicus, from Greek klīnikós, "of the bed" — from klīnē, "bed," since the word originally referred to bedside medical treatment.

clinical

Origin

From clinic + the adjective suffix -al.

clinician

Origin

From French clinicien, equivalent to clinic + -ian.

clink

Old English

From Old English roots meaning "to sound" or "ring," related to "cling" (in the sound sense) and "clang" — likely imitative of the noise metal makes striking metal.

clinker

Origin

From Dutch klinkaerd, later klinker, from klinken (“to ring, resound”).

Clint

Danish

Originally a Yorkshire dialect word from Old Danish klint, meaning a rocky ledge or cliff.

Clinton

Old English

An English habitational surname from places named Glinton or Glympton, from Old English + tūn ("enclosure, homestead, town").

Clio

Ancient Greek

Named after Clio, the Ancient Greek muse of history, from whom both the award and the Renault car model borrow their name.

cliometrics

Origin

From Clio (“the Muse of history”) + -metrics.

clip

Old English

From Old English clyppan, "to embrace or clasp" — the "cut" sense developed later, from the idea of gripping something to trim it.

clipboard

Origin

A straightforward compound of clip and board.

clipper

Origin

From clip ("cut" or "move fast") plus -er — the sailing ship sense likely comes from "clip" meaning to move at a rapid pace.

clipping

Origin

From clip + -ing.

clique

French

Borrowed from French clique, likely of imitative origin, possibly influenced by the similar word claque.

clit

Origin

Shortened from clitoris.

clitoris

Greek

From Greek kleitorís, likely related to a verb meaning "to shut" or "sheathe" — a reference to how it is partly covered by the labia minora.

Clive

Old English

From Old English clīfan, "to cleave or stick fast", from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to stick or adhere" — related to modern cleave and to German kleben ("to stick").

clivus

Origin

Derived from Latin clīvus (“slope, hill”).

CLM

English

An initialism; the expansion depends on context, most commonly career limiting move or contract lifecycle management.

cloaca

Origin

Borrowed from Latin cloāca (“sewer”), related to cluō (“cleanse; purge”), but the derivation is uncertain.

cloak

Old French

From Old French cloque, "traveling cloak," ultimately from a Celtic word for "bell" — the garment was named for its bell-like shape. A doublet of "clock" and "cloche."

cloakroom

Origin

A compound of cloak and room, originally meaning a room for storing coats and cloaks.

clobber

Origin · 1941

British slang first recorded around 1941, possibly imitating the sound of distant bombs during wartime.