different between vigour vs clout

English

Alternative forms

• vigor (US)
• vygour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English vigour, from Old French vigour, from vigor, from Latin vigor, from vigeo (“thrive, flourish”), from Proto-Indo-European [Term?].

Related to vigil.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?v???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?v???/
• Rhymes: -???(?)

Noun

vigour (countable and uncountable, plural vigours)

1. Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; energy.
2. (biology) Strength or force in animal or vegetable nature or action.

   A plant grows with vigour.

3. Strength; efficacy; potency.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     But in the fruithful earth: there first receiv'd / His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.

Usage notes

Vigour and its derivatives commonly imply active strength, or the power of action and exertion, in distinction from passive strength, or strength to endure.

Derived terms

• envigorate
• vigorous
• hybrid vigor/hybrid vigour

Related terms

• vegetable
• vigil

Translations

Old French

Noun

vigour m (oblique plural vigours, nominative singular vigours, nominative plural vigour)

1. Alternative form of vigur

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