MrGrumpy wrote:Noggin the Nog wrote:Pardon my ignorance but what's a clout?
You aren't supposed to UNDERSTAND old sayings, just repeat them like a robot at the right moments!!
Found it on google:
The word 'clout', although archaic, is straightforward. Since at least the early 15th century 'clout' has been used variously to mean 'a blow to the head', 'a clod of earth or (clotted) cream' or 'a fragment of cloth, or clothing'. It is the last of these that is meant in 'cast a clout'. This was spelled variously spelled as clowt, clowte, cloot, clute. Here's an early example, from the Early English Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, circa 1485:
Now knowingly I can repeat it at the right moment
G.