different between brawn vs clout

English

Etymology

From Middle English brawne, from Old French braon (“slice of meat, fleshy part, buttock”), from Frankish *br?don, *br?dan, accusative form of *br?d? (“roasted meat, ham”), from Proto-Germanic *br?dô (“meat, roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?r?- (“to burn, heat”), from *b?rewh?- (“to boil, bubble, burn”). Akin to Old High German br?to (“tender meat”) (German Braten (“roast”)), Old English br?de, br?d (“flesh, meat”), Old Norse bráð (“raw meat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b???n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Noun

brawn (uncountable)

1. Strong muscles or lean flesh, especially of the arm, leg or thumb.
2. Physical strength; muscularity.
   • 2000, Stephanie Laurens, A Secret Love, Avon Books (2000), ?ISBN, page 349:

     The man was a bruiser, the sort who'd learned his science in tavern brawls. Given his size and lack of agility, he relied on his brawn to win. In any wrestling match, Crowley would triumph easily.

   • 2008, Michael Mandaville, Stealing Thunder, Dog Ear Publishing (2008), ?ISBN, page 562:

     The two men were husky, picked for their brawn by the little man who sauntered into the room.

   • 2010, Martin Pasko & Robert Greenberger, The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, Del Ray (2010), ?ISBN, page 218:

     The youth agreed to the scheme and used his brawn to begin moving pieces into place, starting by moving the planet Rann into the Thanagarian star system […]

3. (chiefly Britain) Head cheese; a terrine made from the head of a pig or calf; originally boar's meat.
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Now if your Majesty would have our bristles
     To bind your mortar with, or fill our colons
     With rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles,
     In policy—ask else your royal Solons—
     You ought to give us hog-wash and clean straw,
     And sties well thatched; besides it is the law!

   • 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus 2014, p. 111:

     It was brawn and shape for high tea.

4. (Britain, dialectal) A boar.
   • 1821, John Stagg, The Cumbrian Minstrel: Being a Poetical Miscellany:

     And loud as brawns wer [they] snoring,

   • 1842, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Borderer's Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local History:

     THE village of Brancepath, pleasantly situated at the distance of four miles and three- quarters south-west by west of Durham, is said to have derived its name (a corruption of Brawn's-path) from a brawn of vast size, [...]

Derived terms

• brawny

Translations

See also

• aspic

Verb

brawn (third-person singular simple present brawns, present participle brawning, simple past and past participle brawned)

1. (transitive) Make fat, especially of a boar.
2. (intransitive) Become fat, especially of a boar.

Derived terms

• brawner

Translations

Middle English

Noun

brawn

1. Alternative form of brawne

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kla?t/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /kl??t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English clout, from Old English cl?t, from Proto-Germanic *kl?taz, from Proto-Indo-European *gelewdos, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Old Norse klútr (“kerchief”), Swedish klut, Danish klud, Middle High German kl?z (“lump”), whence German Kloß, and dialect Russian ????? (gluda). See also cleat. The sense “influence, especially political” originated in the dialect of Chicago, but has become widespread.

Noun

clout (countable and uncountable, plural clouts)

1. Influence or effectiveness, especially political.
2. (regional, informal) A blow with the hand.
   • 1910, Katherine Mansfield, Frau Brenchenmacher Attends A Wedding

     ‘Such a clout on the ear as you gave me… But I soon taught you.’

3. (baseball, informal) A home run.
   • 2011, Michael Vega, "Triple double", in The Boston Globe, August 17, 2011, p. C1.

     '... allowed Boston to score all of its runs on homers, including a pair of clouts by Jacoby Ellsbury ...'

4. (archery) The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene 1,^[4]

     A’ must shoot nearer or he’ll ne’er hit the clout.

5. (regional, dated) A swaddling cloth.
6. (archaic) A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 9, p. 129,^[5]

     His garment nought but many ragged clouts, / With thornes together pind and patched was, / The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts;

   • c. 1600 William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2,^[6]

     […] a clout upon that head

     Where late the diadem stood […]

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 74,^[7]

     We condol’d with each other, and observ’d how wretchedly we look’d, all naked, except a small Clout about our Middles […]
7. (archaic) An iron plate on an axletree or other wood to keep it from wearing; a washer.
8. (obsolete) A piece; a fragment.
   • c. 1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The Merchant’s Tale,” lines 707-709, in The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, London: Bell & Daldy, 1866, Volume 2, p. 339,^[8]

     And whan sche of this bille hath taken heede, / Sche rente it al to cloutes atte laste / And into the privy softely it caste.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clout (third-person singular simple present clouts, present participle clouting, simple past and past participle clouted)

1. To hit, especially with the fist.
2. To cover with cloth, leather, or other material; to bandage, patch, or mend with a clout.
   • 15 March, 1549, Hugh Latimer, The Second Sermon preached before the King's Majesty at Westminster

     Paul, yea, and Peter, too, had more skill in […] clouting an old tent than to teach lawyers.

3. To stud with nails, as a timber, or a boot sole.
4. To guard with an iron plate, as an axletree.
5. To join or patch clumsily.

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

clout (third-person singular simple present clouts, present participle clouting, simple past and past participle clouted)

1. Dated form of clot.
   • 1948, The Essex Review

     He tells us how to butter eggs, boil eels, clout cream, stew capons, how to make a fine cake, an almond pudding and a raspberry conserve, […]

References

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English cl?t, from Proto-West Germanic *kl?t, from Proto-Germanic *kl?taz. Compare cloud.

Alternative forms

• clowt, cloute, clowte, clowtt

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klu?t/

Noun

clout (plural cloutes)

1. A (smaller) piece of fabric; a shred:
   1. A patch (fabric for mending).
   2. A bandage or dressing (for wounds)
   3. rag, tatter (piece of clothing)
2. A (larger) piece of fabric; a cloth:
   1. Threadbare or inferior clothing.
   2. Cloth for wrapping babies; swaddling clothes.
   3. A burial shroud.
3. A washer; a round metal panel.
4. A fragment or shred.
5. A strike, blow or hit.

Related terms

• clouten
• clouting
• clowter

Descendants

• English: clout
• Scots: clout, cloot

References

• “cl?ut, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “cl?ut, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

clout

1. Alternative form of clouten