klaxon

Meaning

Noun

A loud electric alarm or horn, especially as used in automobiles in the early 20th century.

Verb

To produce a loud, siren-like wail.

Synonyms

horn

hooter

claxon

trumpet

🎺

brass wind instrument

electric horn

bugle

klaxon horn

clarion

klaxon-horn

Translations

bocina

claxon

avertisseur

⚠️

klaxon

hoorn

Hupe

claxon

toeter

buzina

corne

botzina

cornu

corno

trompa

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈklæks(ə)n/

Etymology

From the trademark Klaxon, based on Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “make a sharp sound; scream”) (from Proto-Indo-European *glag- (“to make a noise, clap, twitter”), from *gal- (“to roop, scream, shout”)). The word was coined by Franklyn Hallett Lovell Jr., the founder of the Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, USA, which in 1908 obtained a licence of the patent to the machine generating the sound from American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944).