claque
pronunciation
How to pronounce claque in British English:
UK [klæk]
How to pronounce claque in American English:
US [klæk]
-
- Noun:
- a group of followers hired to applaud at a performance
Word Origin
- claque (n.)
- 1860, from French claque "band of claqueurs," agent noun from claquer "to clap" (16c.), echoic (compare clap (v.)). Modern sense of "band of political followers" is transferred from that of "organized applause at theater." Claqueur "audience memeber who gives pre-arranged responses in a theater performance" is in English from 1837. This method of aiding the success of public performances is very ancient; but it first became a permanent system, openly organized and controlled by the claquers themselves, in Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century. [Century Dictionary]
Example
- 1. Claque : a group of persons hired to applaud at a performance .
- 2. Are those your friends ? You brought along a claque ?
- 3. On a visit to time inc. 's new-media facility he answered questions from a collection of magazine editors as if by rote but on his way out he asked to see the internet servers and spent 45 minutes grilling the claque of awed techies there .