A Dictionary of Cont..

a period, and we have such phrases as the
climate of opinion.
Weather is the state of the atmosphere with
respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture,
pressure, etc. Keep one’s weather eye open,
as a term for being on one’s guard, is a clich6.
It was not Mark Twain but Charles Dudley
Warner who first said Everybody talks about the
weather, but nobody does anything about it. Mr.
Warner was witty. Those who repeat his saying
are not.
climatic; climactic; climacteric(a1). Climatic relates
to climate (The climatic changes affected
the vegetation). Climactic relates toclimax (The
climactic scene had a tremendous impact on the
audience). Climacteric (also climacterical) pertains
to critical periods. There was formerly a
theory that there were certain years in which important
changes in health and fortune occurred.
Of these the sixty-third year was the culmination
(nine times seven) and it was called the
grand climacteric. The word is also used very
frequently to describe a period of decre:ase of
reproductive activity in men and women, culminating,
in women, in the menopause.
climax in popular usage is the culmination, the
highest point (He was then at the climax of his
fortunes). In rhetoric the word designates a
series of related ideas so arranged that each one
surpasses the preceding in force or intensity, or
(more popularly) the last term or member of
such a figure.
Originally a rhetorical climax required that
the last important word of one clause be repeated
as the first important word in the next (accumulated
epanastrophe) but now all -that is
required is that the intensity of expression or importance
of meaning increase with each succeeding
member term. Indeed, where there is a series
of comments or evaluations it is commonly assumed
that they are in a climactic order, so that
the order in which they are placed is an indication
of the values of the speaker or writer. Thus
if it is said of a young lady that she is “young,
rich, pretty, and intelligent,” it is assumed that
the speaker has a different set of values from another
who would describe her as “intelligent,
pretty, young, and rich.”
A fine example of climax, in the older as well
as the modern form, is furnished by the third
and fourth verses of the fifth chapter of Romans:
“We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation
worketh patience; and patience, experience;
and experience, hope; and hope maketh
not ashamed.” See also anticlimax.
climb up; climb down. Since all definitions of
climb involve the idea of ascent, there are those
who insist that climb up is redundant and climb
down a contradiction. But dictionaries follow
language; they do not control it. In the word
climb there is implicit an effort, a strenuous
exertion which when exceptionally arduous is
expressed in the related word clamber. In using
climb up and climb down the common speaker
is indicating in which direction this effort is
being or is to be applied. So climb down o,f your
97 clique
high horse is more expressive than conze down
ofi your high horse in that it recognizes that such
a descent may be difficult and undignified.
The common speaker has the age-old support
of writers. Thus in Cursor Mundi (1300 A.D.)
we are told that we freli may climb up and dun.
cling. The past tense is clung. The participle is
also clung.
clip means more than to cut; it means to cut off or
to cut out, as with shears. We clip something out
of the paper if we want to save it. The American
clipping bureau is the English press-cutting
agency. Hair is cut if it is long, clipped if it is
short. A hedge is invariably clipped.
In informal speech clip means a rapid pace
(He was coming down the road at a good fast
clip when he saw the truck). This is largely an
American use, though it is used in some English
dialects. Clip in the sense of a sharp blow (He
fetched him a clip on the ear) is slang.
clipped words. See abbreviations.
clippers. An instrument for clipping may be called
a clipper and three of them may be called three
clippers. But one instrument may be treated as
a plural, as in are these clippers the ones?, or
referred to as a pair of clippers. This is acceptable
but not necessary. The singular form
clipper is preferred as the first element in a
compound, as in a clipper sharpener.
clique; coterie; claque; set; circle. A clique is a
small and exclusive group of people, usually of
some intellectual pretensions. It is a term of reproach
or contempt (the word is simply the
French for click and alludes derisively to the
clicking and clucking sounds of mutual and selfapproval
made by the members) for those who
take unto themselves supreme authority in social
or intellectual or artistic matters or who are
thought to associate for selfish ends under the
guise of some high aspirations or ideals (Addison
had his clique at Button’s tavern).
Coterie also describes an exclusive group, but
it is more likely to be in society than in the arts
and the term, while often contemptuous, is not
always so and is less so than clique (The book
was written for an exclusive coterie. He belonged
to the most brilliant coteries of the day).
A claque is a set of hired applauders at a
theater, or any group of persons ready to applaud
for interested motives. It is easily confused
with clique because the members of a clique SO
often form a claque to applaud each other. That
is one of the chief things that earns them the
detestation of outsiders (The author’s friends
formed a claque on the opening night to ensure
the play’s success).
Set refers to a number of persons of similar
background, upbringing, interests, and so on. It
often implies wealth or interest in social activities
(the country club set, the Junior League
set) but does not have the derogatory connotations
of clique. It is a word that has been much
expanded by newspapers and is enjoying apartly
humorous-vogue (the teen-age set, the
kindergarten set, the marshmallow set).
A circle is usually thought of as a pleasant