释义
declaim
(once / 1631 pages)
v
Use the verb declaim when someone is speaking very passionately against something, like when you declaim having to be home at an early hour.
Declaim can also describe reciting words aloud for practice. If you're learning a new language, you might declaim a sentence until it sounds clear and natural when you say it. Declaim was originally spelled declame , similar to the Latin word declamare , meaning "to practice public speaking," but later became declaim as its other meaning came into greater use.
TASTY MORSELS Vocabulary Shout-Out: Gina Bellafante for "Declaim"
Writing in response to Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz's deununciation of the Citi Bike bike-sharing program in New York City, New York Times "Big City" columnist Gina Bellafante referred to Rabinowitz's "crazy-lady assertions about cycling’s hold on New York" as "declaimed absurdities."
Declaim means to speak publicly, or or speak out passionately against. Its synonyms include inveigh and protest, and along with proclaim (announce), exclaim (cry or utter aloud), acclaim (praise vociferously), and disclaim (to deny), it's a proud member of the family of words that claim claim in the sense of "profess" as a root. (Claim can also mean "to express a right to something," as when you claim a prize you won, stake a claim to a piece of land, or reclaim what once was yours.)
It makes sense that claim has so many offspring — it's been around a long time. It came into English around 1300 from the French clamer "to call or name," which in turn descended from the Latin clamare "to cry out, shout, proclaim," and likely existed before that in a Proto-Indo-European language form as the root kele- , meaning "to shout." Kele- shows up in cognate form through references to roosters crowing and dawn breaking in languages all over the map. Etymonline.com provides this catalog:
Sanskrit usakala "cock," literally "dawn-calling;" Latin calare "to announce solemnly, call out;" Middle Irish cailech "cock;" Greek kalein "to call," kelados "noise," kledon "report, fame;" Old High German halan "to call;" Old English hlowan "to low, make a noise like a cow;" Lithuanian kalba "language").
Thinking about the ancient roots of this well-pedigreed verb puts the bike-sharing controversy into perspective, doesn't it?
WORD FAMILY declaim : declaimed, declaiming, declaims, declamation+ / declamation : declamations
USAGE EXAMPLES What an opening Brahms crafted for this concerto, with timpani roaring and the rest of the orchestra declaiming abrupt, emphatic shouts of confidence.
Washington Post(Nov 20, 2016)
That declaimed , chantlike text setting! — yield work that is superficial or boring.
Washington Post(Nov 14, 2016)
The eight-minute “Retribution” starts with her calmly declaiming about materialism despoiling Mother Earth.
New York Times(Nov 04, 2016)
1 v
recite in elocution Syn | Hypo | Hyper
recite
elocute
declaim in an elocutionary manner
perorate
deliver an oration in grandiloquent style
scan
read metrically
do, execute, perform
carry out or perform an action
2 v
speak against in an impassioned manner he declaimed against the wasteful ways of modern society
Syn | Hyper
inveigh
protest
utter words of protest