Wiktionary

klaxon

English

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WOTD – 6 August 2018

Etymology

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A warning sign on a rural road in the United States advising drivers to “sound klaxon”[n 1]
A dive alert, or klaxon, aboard a World War II United States Navy submarine

From the trademark Klaxon, based on Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “make a sharp sound; scream”) (from Proto-Indo-European *glag- (“to make a noise, clap, twitter”), from *gal- (“to roop, scream, shout”)). The word was coined by Franklyn Hallett Lovell Jr., the founder of the Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, USA, which in 1908 obtained a licence of the patent to the machine generating the sound from American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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klaxon (plural klaxons)

  1. A loud electric alarm or horn, especially as used in automobiles in the early 20th century. [from 1908]
    • 1922 October, Michael Arlen, “Book the Third: The Antagonists. Chapter V.”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London, Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., […], published August 1924, →OCLC, section 1, page 188:
      And she went so swiftly that he could only follow her to the door. The large shape of the car swallowed her up; and the car twisted softly around the little drive and away to the London road. Minutes later he heard its Klaxon, just one sharp keen, like the harsh cry of a sea-bird. …
    • 1940 October 21, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 42, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC; republished London: Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, 1949 (13th printing), →OCLC, page 386:
      There was a motor car behind them now and it blasted into the truck noise and the dust with its klaxon again and again; then flashed on lights that showed the dust like a solid yellow cloud and surged past them in a whining rise of gears and a demanding, threatening, bludgeoning of klaxoning.
    • 1962 September, James Jones, chapter 2, in The Thin Red Line, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC, page 73:
      They could hear a lot more than they could see. But what they heard told them exactly nothing. There were the klaxons, which kept up their long, monotonous, insane growling protest all through the raid.
    • 2007, Thomas E. Lightburn, chapter 11, in The Shield and the Shark, Cambridge: Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 173:
      When the claxon sounded they immediately stopped what they were doing and uncovered the Oerlikon. Paddy, who was ammunition feeder, stood by while Jock trained the 20mm gun around.
    • 2010 November, Brad R. Torgersen, “Outbound”, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume CXXX, number 11, Norwalk, Conn.: Dell Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 84; reprinted as “Outbound”, in Stanley Schmidt, editor, Into the New Millennium: Trailblazing Tales from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2000–2010, Norwalk, Conn.: Penny Publications, 2011, →ISBN, column 1:
      Irenka was up front using the lavatory when the lights in the cabin went red and the klaxon sounded over the speakers.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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Verb

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klaxon (third-person singular simple present klaxons, present participle klaxoning, simple past and past participle klaxoned)

  1. (intransitive) To produce a loud, siren-like wail.

Derived terms

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Notes

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  1. ^ From Arthur W[illiam] Dunn (1920) “Why We Have Government”, in Harold W. Foght, editor, Community Civics and Rural Life (Rural Education Series), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: D. C. Heath and Company, →OCLC, page 46.

References

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  1. ^ “Signalling Methods Definitely Cared For”, in Automotive Industries, volume 22, New York, N.Y.: Chilton Company, 1910 January 13, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 125.

Further reading

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Czech

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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klaxon m inan

  1. horn (loud alarm, especially on a motor vehicle)

Declension

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Declension of klaxon (hard masculine inanimate)
singular plural
nominative klaxon klaxony
genitive klaxonu klaxonů
dative klaxonu klaxonům
accusative klaxon klaxony
vocative klaxone klaxony
locative klaxonu klaxonech
instrumental klaxonem klaxony

Alternative forms

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English klaxon. Genericized trademark.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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klaxon m (plural klaxons)

  1. horn (of car)

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English klaxon.

Noun

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klaxon m (plural klaxons)

  1. klaxon (a type of loud electric horn)
    Synonyms: cláxon, clácson
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