Etymology

clutch

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Today it means: To seize, as though with claws. Full definition →

First used 14th c.Middle English clucchen ← Old English clyċċan ← Proto-West Germanic *klukkjan
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clutch · verb, noun, adjective1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*glēk-
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*klēk-“claw, hand”
  3. Middle English · derived fromcleche
  4. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*glew-“to ball up; lump, mass”
  5. Proto-Germanic · derived from*klu-“to ball up, conglomerate, amass”
  6. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*klukjaną
  7. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*klukkjan
  8. Old English · inherited fromclyċċan“to clutch, clench”
  9. Middle English · inherited fromclucchen
  10. English todayclutch

From Middle English clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from Old English clyċċan (“to clutch, clench”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *klukjaną, from Proto-Germanic *klu- (“to ball up, conglomerate, amass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up; lump, mass”). Cognate with Swedish klyka (“clamp, fork, branch”). The noun is from Middle English cleche, cloche, cloke ("claw, talon, hand"; compare Scots cleuk, cluke, cluik (“claw, talon”)), of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb. Alternative etymology derives Old English clyċċan from Proto-Germanic *klēk- (“claw, hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *glēk-, *ǵlēḱ- (“claw, hand; to clutch, snatch”). If so, then cognate with Irish glac (“hand”).

clutch · noun, verb2

  1. Old Norse · derived fromklekja“to hatch”
  2. Middle English · derived fromcleken“to hatch”
  3. English todayclutch

Variant form of cletch, from Middle English cleken (“to hatch”), perhaps from Old Norse klekja (“to hatch”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*glew- all →

clueclew

Middle Englishcleken all →

click

Old Norseklekja all →

cleck

First known use, by meaning

  • from 14th c. To seize, as though with claws.
  • from 17th c. To grip or grasp tightly.
  • from 13th c. The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
  • from 16th c. A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
  • from 19th c. A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used to separate the engine and gearbox in a car.
  • from 18th c. A brood of chickens or a sitting of bird, monotreme or reptile eggs; a sitting.
  • from 20th c. A group or bunch (of people or things).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.