- clout (n.)
- Old English clut "lump of something," also "patch of cloth put over a hole to mend it," from Proto-Germanic *klutaz (cf. Old Norse klute "kerchief," Danish klud "rag, tatter," Frisian klut "lump," Dutch kluit "clod, lump"); perhaps related to clot. In later use "a handkerchief," also "a woman's sanitary napkin." Sense of "a blow" is from early 14c., first in a verbal sense, "to beat, strike;" perhaps somehow from the "patch" sense. Sense of "personal influence" is 1958, on the notion of "punch, force."