clepen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• clepe, clepyn
• cleopien, clepenn, clepian, clepiȝen, clypian (Early Middle English)
• clepie (Kent)
• clupen, clupie, clupy (south West Midlands)

Etymology

From Old English cleopian, clipian, from Proto-West Germanic *klipōn, from Proto-Germanic *klipōną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklɛ̞ːpən/, /ˈklɛpən/ (from cleopian)
• IPA^(key): /ˈkleːpən/, /ˈklipən/ (from clipian)

Verb

clepen (third-person singular simple present clepeth, present participle clepende, first-/third-person singular past indicative clepte, past participle yclept)

1. to call out, cry (about something)
2. to call out, appeal (to someone or something)
   • c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde] (in Middle English), [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482, →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book V, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio ccvi, verso, column 1:

     For that that ſome men blamen euer yet / Lo, other maner folke comenden it / And as for me, for al ſuche variaunce / Felicite clepe I my ſuffyſaunce

     For that that some blame, yet / other kinds of people commend it. / But as for me, with all that variance / I call on felicity for my competence

3. to say or respond to (someone)
4. to say; to tell; to discuss (something)
5. to name, call, designate
6. to call to; to summon
7. to convoke; to cause to assemble

Conjugation

Conjugation of clepen (weak in -te/-ed)

infinitive	(to) clepen, clepe
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	clepe	clepte, cleped
2nd-person singular	clepest	cleptest, clepedest
3rd-person singular	clepeth	clepte, cleped
subjunctive singular	clepe
imperative singular		—
plural1	clepen, clepe	clepten, clepte, clepeden, clepede
imperative plural	clepeth, clepe	—
participles	clepynge, clepende	clept, cleped, yclept, ycleped

¹ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Descendants

• English: clepe
• Yola: clepe

References

• “clēpen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.