Claw (pronounced klaw)
(1) In zoology (1) A sharp, usually curved, nail on the
foot of an animal, as on a cat, dog or bird; (2) a corresponding structure in
some invertebrates, such as the pincer of a crab (3) a similar curved process
at the end of the leg of an insect a (4) a foot so equipped.
(2) A mechanical device either resembling a claw or with similar
functionality, used for gripping or lifting.
(3) In colloquial use, a human fingernail, particularly if
long (natural or extended).
(4) In botany, slender appendage or process, formed like
a claw, such as the formation found at the base of petals.
(5) In juggling, the act of catching a ball overhand.
(6) To tear, scratch, seize, pull, etc, with or as if
with claws.
(7) To make by or as if by scratching, digging etc, with
hands or claws.
(8) To make fumbling motions.
Pre 900: From the Middle English noun clawen (sharp, hooked, horny end of the
limb of a mammal, bird, reptile etc), from the Old English clawan, clāwan & clēn
(claw, talon, iron hook), from the Proto-Germanic klawjaną & klawō and cognate
with the Old High German kluwi, chlōa
& chlō and akin to the Middle
Dutch klouwe, the Dutch klauen & klauw, the Old Frisian klawe
(claw, hoe), the West Frisian klau, the
Sanskrit glau- (ball, sphere), the Danish,
Norwegian & Swedish klo and the German
Klaue (claw). The Old English verb clawian (to scratch, claw) shared its etymology with the nouns and
the developments in other Germanic languages included the Dutch klaauwen, the Old High German klawan and the German klauen.
Claw is a noun & verb, clawer is a noun. clawless is an adjective, clawed
is a verb & adjective, clawing is a verb, noun & adjective and
clawingly is an adverb; the noun plural is claws.
The phrase “to claw back” in the sense of "regain by
great effort" sounds ancient but is documented only since 1953 as a noun;
the verb (an act of this) coming into use in 1969. The sense of antiquity comes from “clawback”
which since at least the 1540s meant “one who fawns on another; a sycophant” and
that was derived from the late fourteenth century “claw the back” (to flatter, to
curry favor) which was different from the modern “you scratch my back and I’ll
scratch yours) which is about co-operation with a whiff of something corrupt. The use of “claw back” expanded in the 1970s
to describe a trick in politics whereby the voters were given something in the
run-up to an election and after getting their votes, a government would “claw
back” what was given by using some mechanism apparently unrelated to the
original bribe. The noun dew claw (also
as dew-claw) describes the “"rudimentary inner toe of the foot, especially
the hind foot, of some dogs” and has been documented since the 1570s but may
have enjoyed long regional use and etymologists note that while the claw part
is obvious, the origin of the other element is mysterious. The verb “declaw” was from veterinary
science and was used usually of a procedure applied to creatures in zoos or domestic
pets to make them less dangerous to others or their environment. It’s become controversial. In figurative use, it’s used to describe
processes which limit the effectiveness of sporting teams, political parties
etc. Phrases like “showing her claws”
& “scratching her eyes out” were once applied usually to (and about) bolshie
women but it’s since been embraced by various parts of the LGBTQQIAAOP community;
it’s used as required. Claw is one of
those words in English with a structural duality; in zoology a claw may either
be a single nail or a collection of several.
Alexander McQueen’s “Armadillo boots” with “claw heels” (left) and Lindsay Lohan out walking in New York in claw heels, 2011 (left).
Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) displayed his “Armadillo
boots” as part of the spring/summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection which
turned out to be his final show. Inspired
by the ideas made famous in Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) On the Origin of
Species (1859), the collection was an imagining of humankind evolving into a
species living underwater (and thus technically a devolution) as hybrid aquatic
creatures. The boots were a blend of the
shape of an Armadillo with the claw-like heel borrowed from the lobster, all
finished in turquoise, sea-green and other shades evocative of oceans and coral
reefs. The combination of the 9-inch (230
mm) claw stiletto heel and the unnatural shape the foot made to assume meant
the thought exercise was intended more to please fashion editors than end up on
cobblers’ lasts but as Lindsay Lohan demonstrates, when combined with a more
conventional fitting, the claw heel is manageable, the change in the centre of
gravity induced by the forward movement of the heels point of contact
presumably minimal. While not
conventionally attractive, the boots were admired by those who appreciate such
things for their own sake and criticized by those who take such things too
seriously.
Among his assemblages, Salvador Dalí’s (1904-1989) Lobster Telephone (1936) is the best known and probably as famous as La persistènciade la memòria (The Persistence of Memory (although often referred to as the more evocative “melting clocks”)) is among his paintings. It tends now to be forgotten that by the 1930s the Surrealist movement had come to be seen as moribund, an idea which had worked its concepts dry but in a creative burst, Dali and his collaborators built installations both minute and at scale which, playing with conjunction of objects and spaces never before associated, managed what’s so rarely achieved in art: the genuinely new. The lobster was also for Dali a sex object which may sound improbable until it’s remembered how influential had become the works of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and the crustacean, with its succulent white flesh promising pleasure and those menacing claws nothing but pain, was quite a motif. To make the point he painted a large lobster for Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) who in 1937 placed it with care on an evening gown, achieving an erotic playfulness. Dali had just a much fun with the telephone, the claws enveloping a user’s ear while the tail, home of the sexual organs, was placed directly over the mouthpiece.
Avoiding the claws: Lindsay Lohan saving a lobster from certain death in Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019). Her intentions were pure but the ultimate fate of the crustacean remains uncertain.
The Claw of Death, Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Although the whole, vast wasteland of the
restricted zone which was declared after the nuclear accident in 1986 has any
number of abandoned structures and relics, there’s something about the “claw of
death” which people find especially eerie.
The radioactive artifact of Soviet-era nuclear power-plant design is a hydraulically
activated clawed bucket which was once attached to one of the pieces of heavy
machinery used to move contaminated objects during the decontamination process and
although there are contradictory reports, it seems it was used to clear concrete,
uranium & graphite debris from the collapsed roof of the building which
housed the destroyed reactor.
Lindsay Lohan as "Carrie" meets Freddy Krueger (boxer Floyd Mayweather (b 1977)), A Night Full of Fright, Halloween party at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Connecticut, 30 October 2013 (left). Freddy Krueger was "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs", the antagonist in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series (of which ANoES III was the best) and portrayed most memorably by Robert Englund (b 1947) (right). His signature device was the clawed glove.
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