Word of the Day for Tuesday 17th December 2013
Klaxon \ KLAK-suhn \, noun :
a loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc.., and now Often used as a warning signal.
He invented the Klaxon , a horn That relied on electricity to vibrate a metal diaphragm, That was a sound emitting shrill yet guttural, yet unending abrupt, ugly yet lifesaving.
- Julie M. Fenster, The Spirit of Invention , 2009
Everybody Has heard a klaxon on a car suddenly begin to sound, I understand it is a short circuit That causes it.
- James Thurber, "Let Your Mind Alone!," The New Yorker , 1937
Klaxon got its name from an American manufacturing company that made horns for automobiles. It entered English in the early 1900s.
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