clarion

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English clarion, clarioun (“trumpet with a narrow tube and a shrill sound, clarion; clarion player”) [and other forms], from Old French claron, clarïon (“clarion”) [and other forms], from Medieval Latin clāriōn, clario, clārōn (“clarion; trumpet”), from Latin clārus (“audible; clear, distinct, loud; (visually) bright, clear”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, summon; to cry”). The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.

noun

1. (music, historical or poetic) A medieval brass instrument chiefly used as a battle signal; related to the trumpet, it had a narrow, straight pipe and a high-pitched, piercing sound.
   The clarion’s call to action has been heard.
2. (by extension)
   1. (poetic) The sound of a clarion (sense 1), or any sound resembling the loud, high-pitched note of a clarion.
   2. (music) An organ stop consisting of pipes with reeds giving a high-pitched note like that of a clarion (sense 1).
3. (heraldry) A charge thought to represent a type of wind instrument, a keyboard instrument like a spinet, or perhaps a rest used by a knight to support a lance during jousting.

adj

1. Of a sound, a voice, a message, etc.: brilliantly clear.
   her clarion top notes
   Clay Hilley brought vocal heft, clarion sound and stamina to the role, though there were stretches where his voice sounded strained, understandably so, given the demands. July 31, 2017, Anthony Tommasini, “Review: Flawed but Fascinating Dvorak Opera in a Rare Staging”, in New York Times
   The clarion immediacy of Van Gogh’s painting was echoed by his prose. March 24, 2021, Sebastian Smee, “Van Gogh’s astonishing masterpiece”, in Washington Post

Etymology 2

From Middle English clariounen (“of a horn or trumpet: to blow, sound”), from clarioun (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs). Later uses may also be derived directly from the noun.

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To announce or herald (something) using a clarion (noun sense 1).
      1. (figurative) To announce or herald (something) clearly, especially so as to stir or unite people.
         His deep voice clarioned the words and he paused, hearing them whisper away into their last faint echoes in the organ loft. 1946, Rebecca Rogers, They Ask for Bread, New York, N.Y.: Rockport Press Publishers, →OCLC, page 16
         He Martin Luther King Jr.] clarioned a call to action that was heard wherever Afro-Christians could be found (and beyond, if one recalls Pentecostalism). 1997, Cedric J[ames] Robinson, “The Search for Higher Ground”, in Black Movements in America (Revolutionary Thought/Radical Movements), New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, page 144
         All around me the tamaracks, alder birches and willows would send up amber and golden flares clarioning the winter; […] 2004, Brian Keenan, “First Footfalls in Fairbanks”, in Four Quarters of Light: A Journey through Alaska, London, Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday, page 28
   2. (also figurative) Of a thing: to cause (a place) to echo with a sound like that of a clarion.
      Sir Knight, thy glory clarioneth the heavens. 1833, [Richard Henry Horne], “Of Composers, and Instrumental Performers”, in Exposition of the False Medium and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public, London: Effingham Wilson,[…], →OCLC, page 49
2. (intransitive) To sound">sound a clarion; also, to make a high-pitched, piercing sound">sound like that of a clarion.
   [T]hou, young-bodied morn, / In-ushered by the puffed winds clarioning, / No bond can bind. 1883, [Ronald Roth], “The Judgment of Tithonus”, in Edgar or the New Pygmalion; and The Judgment of Tithonus, Madras, Tamil Nadu: Higginbotham and Co.[…], →OCLC, scene ii, page 23
   Grey dawn is over, Chrysilla, and ere now the morning cock clarioning leads on the envious Lady of Morn. 1890, Antipater of Thessalonica, “Sect. I. Love. [At Cockcrowing]”, in J[ohn] W[illiam] Mackail, transl., Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology[…], London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, epigram XXIV, page 100
   [N]ow groaning, now with his eye flashing, now with a tear—undoubtedly a frozen tear—standing in the eye, now clarioning, now sighing, onward and upward he goes: […] 1921, Irvin S[hrewsbury] Cobb, A Plea for Old Cap Collier, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 48–49
   He heard his mother bugling and clarioning outside, and he tried to tell the nurse not to let her in, but no words would come out, no matter how hard he tried. 15 September 1986, Stephen King, “Eddie’s Bad Break”, in It, New York, N.Y.: Viking, published November 1986, part 4 (July of 1958), section 4, page 787