Forms: 4–6 claspe, 5 clospe, clespe, 5–7 clapse, (6 glaspe), 7, 9 dial. claps, 4– clasp. [This, and the vb. of same form, appear in 14th c. Priority in time is given by our quots. to the sb., the etymological priority of which is also favored by their general tenor. From an early date the form claspe varies with clapse (still used in southern dialects), but the evidence fails to show which is the original. No trace of either form is found outside English; and the origin is entirely a matter of conjecture. Senses 1–2 appear to have been the source of the vb., and senses 3–6 in turn to have been influenced by or wholly taken from the vb.
The sb. in its latter part recalls HASP, or hapse (OE. hæpse, ON. hespe a clasp, or fastening); also MLG. and MDu. gaspe, gespe, Du. gesp, clasp, buckle. (Wedgwood suggests direct imitation of the sound of a metal fastening, as when we speak of the snap of a bracelet.) Whether clapse (if this were the original form) could be formed in some way from, or influenced by, CLIP v. (OE. clyppan) to embrace, complecti, amplecti, appears doubtful, inasmuch as this meaning is little applicable to the primary senses of the sb., and appears to have been a later development in the vb., whence it was taken back into later senses of the sb.]
1. A means of fastening, generally of metal, consisting of two interlocking parts.
c. 1325. Execut. Sir S. Fraser, in Pol. Songs (1839), 222. Ant the body hongeth at the galewes faste, With yrnene claspes longe to laste.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 4084. Undernethe is an hasp, Schet with a stapyl and a clasp.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Clospe, offendix, firmaculum, signaculum.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 583. Firmaculum, a clapse, or a broche.
c. 1450. Nominale, ibid. 734. Hoc armiclausum, a clespe.
1570. Levins, Manip., 35. A claspe, fibula.
1611. Cotgr., Agraphe, a claspe; hooke; brace.
In specific uses: a. A fastening to hold together parts of garments, the ends of a belt, girdle, etc.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 119. iij paire of claspes of cooper and gilt.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 12 § 2. Clasps for Gowns, Buckles for Shoes.
1683. Chalkhill, Thealma & Cl., 51. Their Garments … beneath their Paps Buckled together with a silver Claps.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xxxii. 111. Fastened before with a clasp of diamonds.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., ii. 38. The greaves … are leggings formed of pewter-like metal fastened by clasps.
† b. The hook of a ‘hook and eye’ fastening.
1568. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 294. ij pounde black threde ijs.—viij thowsande claspes and kepers iiijs. Ibid. A thousand glaspes and kepers vijd.
1651. Overseers’ Acc. Holy Cross, Canterb., in W. F. Shaw, Kent. Dial., For Goodwife Spaynes girles peticoate and waistcoate making, and clapses, and bindinge, and a pockett.
c. A fastening of the covers of a book.
1454–56. Churchw. Acc. St. Andrews, Eastcheap, in Brit. Mag., XXXI. 243. Paied for Clapses and Corses of the grete Boke iiijs. iijd.
1530. Palsgr., 205/2. Claspe for a boke.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 814/2. The scrypture is in the Apocalyppes called the booke clapsed with seuen clapses.
1549. Compl. Scot., vii. (1873), 70. Heffand ane beuk in his hand, the glaspis var fast lokkyt vitht rouste.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer (Grafton). Bounde in Lether, in Paper Boardes, or Claspes.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 245, ¶ 2. A Bible bound in Shagreen, with gilt Leaves and Clasps.
1874. Burnand, My Time, xxvii. 268. Old-fashioned account books with clasps.
d. fig. A fastening, connection, bond of union.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, xiv. 205. The golden clasp whereby things material and spiritual are united.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Drama Exile, Poet. Wks. I. 22. Unfastening, clasp by clasp, the hard, tight thought Which clipped my heart.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., i. § 1. 12. John may fairly be regarded as the clasp of the two Testaments.
† 2. A grappling iron or hook. [See CLASP v. 3.]
1552. Huloet, Claspe or grapelynge yron, to close shippes to gyther, harpa.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 594 (R.). In the ballast of the said ships, great store of beames of thicke planks, being hollow and beset with yron pikes beneath, but on eche side full of claspes and hookes, to ioyne them together.
† 3. A tendril, a CLASPER. Obs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 34. Wyndyng, with claspes about such plantes as are next hym. Ibid., 35. It hath tendrels or claspes as the Vine hath.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., X. (1714), 422, note (R.). Claspers … of Briony have a retrograde Motion about every third Circle, in Form of a double Clasp, so that if they miss one way, they may catch the other.
4. The act of surrounding or comprehending and holding; embrace. lit. and fig.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Ep. Selden. Nothing but the round Large clasp of Nature, such a wit can bound.
1665. T. Mall, Offer of F. Help, 126. Once within the clasp of this blessed Covenant.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. xi. 43. Vast Bodies, whose Dimensions exceed the clasp of our narrow Phantasms.
b. Taking in the arms, embrace.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. i. 127. To the grosse claspes of a Lasciuious Moore.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., LXXXIV. Diffusing bliss In glance and smile, and clasp and kiss.
c. A reciprocal grasp or joining of hands.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. xii. (Stratm.). Madeline gave him her hand; he held it for a moment with a trembling clasp.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. xii. 144. Let this warm clasp of hands declare thee What is unspeakable.
5. Something that clasps (in sense 4 of the vb.).
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Clasp-hook, an iron clasp, in two parts, moving upon the same pivot, and overlapping one another.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 226. No matter how accurately the clasps may be adapted … they are almost sure … to seriously injure the teeth they are thrown around.
6. A military decoration: a bar or slip of silver fixed transversely upon the ribbon by which a medal is suspended; the medal being given for the whole campaign, the clasps bear the names of those important operations in it at which the wearer was present.
1813. Gen. Order, 7 Oct., in Lond. Gaz., 9 Oct. The Crosses, Medals, and Clasps are to be worn … suspended by a Ribbon of the colour of the sash, with a blue edge, round the neck.
1861. Times, 12 July. He was … all through the Peninsular campaign, having a medal and six clasps, bearing the names ‘Toulouse,’ ‘Pyrenees,’ Salamanca,’ ‘Fuentes d’Onor,’ ‘Busaco,’ and ‘Egypt.’
7. Comb. with the sense ‘clasping,’ ‘acting as a clasp,’ as in clasp-hoop, -iron, -lock, -plate. [In some of these clasp- may be the verb stem.] Clasp-hook, a pair of hooks, tongs, etc., with overlapping jaws; clasp-maker, † clasp-man. Also CLASP-KNIFE, -NAIL.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Clasp-hook.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 24. In seventy-four gun ships and upwards is another hoop put on over the fish and fillings, called a *clasp-hoop. It has a hinge in the middle.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 73. Clasp hoops are then put on over the cheeks between each drift hoop.
1796. J. Boys, Agric. of Kent (1813), 52. Through the centre of the axle is a *clasp-iron.
1664. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 5. To the *clasp-maker’s to have it [my Chaucer] clasped and bossed.
1619. Purchas, Microcosmus, lv. 522. To the Stationers are also subiect, the Binder, *Claspe-man, and I know not what other Frie.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lvi. VII. 134. The pointed *clasp-pins of the feminine attire.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 226. If suction plates are properly made, much less injury arises from their use than from *clasp plates.
