clique » click

Classification: English – cross-language

Spotted in the wild:

  • The young girl who knows that she is the hottest thing in her click announces that they are leaving. She confidentially turns her back on them and walks away. (link)
  • Because of her intrigue for technology and enchantment of mythology, Cindy was noted in her click as The Teckie. (link)
  • Their group was very popular in school. Nancy was the youngest one Pam had ever accepted in her click. These were the cheerleaders and the glamour types. (link)

Clique’s etymology, according to OED.com:

[recent a. F. clique, not in Cotgr., but quoted by Littré of 15th c. in sense ‘noise, clicking sound’, f. cliquer to click, clack, clap. Littré says that in the modern sense it is originally the same as claque band of claqueurs. (This word has no derivative in French; in English it has originated many.)]

One of the entries for “click” is:

Anglicized form of CLIQUE (sense 1)..

This is hard because I’m not certain what this falls into exactly. The meaning that “clique” had in Old French is not far off from the primary meaningof “click” (via OED, yet again):

A slight, sharp, hard, non-ringing sound of concussion, thinner than a clack, such as is made by the dropping of a latch, the cocking of a gun, etc. Also fig.

Is this an eggcorn that the OED has documented by stating “Anglicized form of CLIQUE (sense 1)”, or what? I first noticed it on irc.perl.org#catalyst, and the search for “in his|her|your|my
|their click” came up with a lot of false positives. It does have a web presence, though (as the “Spotted in the Wild” show), but considering the information from OED and dictionary.com, I’m curious what others think.

[David Romano’s draft posted by CW, 2005/10/14. In my view this is one of those eggcorns that lead back in a circle to the original etymology. I suppose this usage of _click_ is derived from the idea that these are the people one “clicks” with. Which appears to be the actual origin of _clique,_ but it is unclear if the writers were aware of that.]

| link | entered by David Romano, 2005/10/14 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Karen , 2006/05/08 at 7:05 pm

    I have to refer to something that was said by an unpopular girl in the 1980s tv show _Square Pegs_. “[In order to be popular,] all we have to do is click with the right clique.” This was on during my mid-teens and it was years before I understood how the remark was spelled. I wonder if it contributed to the confusion in the public mind?

  2. 2

    Commentary by Nigel Pond , 2006/05/25 at 2:05 pm

    If you pronounce the word “clique” properly (as in “cleek”) there should be no confusion as to its spelling.

  3. 3

    Commentary by Erik Kowal , 2006/10/29 at 6:16 am

    The pronunciation of ‘clique’ as ‘click’ is a standard one in much of the USA, where, because it is rare to be taught French at school, variant pronunciations of French words easily gain a foothold (such as with the common pronunciation of ‘coup de grâce’ as “koo de gra” instead of [approximately] “koo de grahs”. That particular mispronunciation may have originated in the common misperception among English speakers that French words are never spoken with an audible ’s’ sound at the end; where a first-hand knowledge of French is rare, such a misperception easily spreads).

    I have also heard ‘clicky’ instead of ‘cliquey’ (pronounced “cleeky”), as in “They are a clicky lot”.

    However, in defence of the mispronouncers, few words of foreign origin escape some modification of their native pronunciation when they are borrowed by another. The degree of divergence of the pronunciation of any foreign word from its original pronunciation on the part of non-native speakers can thus be said to be a question of extent rather than of kind. (See www.wordwizard.com/ch_for… for more detailed discussion of this issue.)

  4. 4

    Commentary by Erik Kowal , 2006/10/30 at 5:20 pm

    The pronunciation of ‘clique’ as ‘click’ is a standard one in much of the USA, where, because it is rare to be taught French at school, variant pronunciations of French words easily gain a foothold (such as with the common pronunciation of ‘coup de grâce’ as “koo de gra” instead of [approximately] “koo de grahs”. That particular mispronunciation may have originated in the common misperception among English speakers that French words are never spoken with an audible ’s’ sound at the end; where a first-hand knowledge of French is rare, such a misperception easily spreads).

    I have also heard ‘clicky’ instead of ‘cliquey’ (pronounced “cleeky”), as in “They are a clicky lot”.

    However, in defence of the mispronouncers, few words of foreign origin escape some modification of their native pronunciation when they are borrowed by another language. The degree of divergence of the pronunciation of any foreign word from its original pronunciation on the part of non-native speakers can thus be said to be a question of extent rather than of kind. (See www.wordwizard.com/ch_for… for more detailed discussion of this issue.)

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