clement
English
Etymology
From Old French, from Latin clēmēns.[1]
Adjective
clement (comparative more clement, superlative most clement)
- Lenient or merciful; charitable.
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iv], page 393, column 2:
- I know you are more clement than vilde[sic, meaning vile] men, / Who of their broken Debtors take a third, / A ſixt, a tenth, letting them thriue againe / On their abatement; […]
- a 1891, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, published 1924, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 18,
- Your clement sentence they would account pusillanimous.
-
- Mild (said of weather and similar circumstances).
- 1984, Edna O'Brien, "The Bachelor" in A Fanatic Heart, New York: Plume, p. 66,
- The weather is clement, though there was a downpour yesterday and I was obliged to take precautions.
- 1992, A. B. Yehoshua, Mr. Mani, translated by Hillel Halkin, New York: Doubleday, pp. 314-5,
- The earth was still dry and the air was perfectly clement.
- 1984, Edna O'Brien, "The Bachelor" in A Fanatic Heart, New York: Plume, p. 66,
Antonyms
Related terms
Translations
lenient or merciful; charitable
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mild
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
References
- clement in: T. F. Hoad, Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford University Press, 2003, →ISBN
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