See more words from the same century. Accessed 13 Nov. More Definitions for applause. See the full definition for applause in the English Language Learners Dictionary.
Nglish: Translation of applause for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of applause for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. But we're reinventing applause, too, for a world where there are, technically, no hands.
We clap for each others' updates on Facebook. We share. We link. We retweet and reblog the good stuff to amplify the noise it makes. We friend and follow and plus-1 and plus-K and recommend and endorse and mention and sometimes even, still blogroll, understanding that bigger audiences -- networked audiences -- can be their own kind of thunderous reward.
We find new ways to express our enthusiasms, to communicate our desires, to encode our emotions for transmission. Our methods are serendipitous and also driven, always, by the subtle dynamics of the crowd.
We clap because we're expected to. We clap because we're compelled to. We clap because something is totally awesome. We clap because we're generous and selfish and compliant and excitable and human.
This is the story of how people clapped when all they had, for the most part, was hands -- of how we liked things before we Liked things. Applause, participatory and observational at the same time, was an early form of mass media, connecting people to each other and to their leaders, instantly and visually and, of course, audibly. It was public sentiment analysis, revealing the affinities and desires of networked people. It was the qualified self giving way to the quantified crowd.
Scholars aren't quite sure about the origins of applause. What they do know is that clapping is very old, and very common, and very tenacious -- " a remarkably stable facet of human culture. The Bible makes many mentions of applause - as acclamation, and as celebration. But clapping was formalized -- in Western culture, at least -- in the theater. At the close of the performance, the chief actor would yell, "Valete et plaudite! And thus turning himself into, ostensibly, one of the world's first human applause signs.
As theater and politics merged -- particularly as the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire -- applause became a way for leaders to interact directly and also, of course, completely indirectly with their citizens. One of the chief methods politicians used to evaluate their standing with the people was by gauging the greetings they got when they entered the arena.
Cicero's letters seem to take for granted the fact that "the feelings of the Roman people are best shown in the theater. This is how you poll their feelings. And they were, being humans and politicians at the same time, comparing their results to other people's polls -- to the applause inspired by their fellow performers. After an actor received more favorable plaudits than he did, the emperor Caligula while clutching, it's nice to imagine, his sword remarked , "I wish that the Roman people had one neck.
Caligula was neither the first nor the last politician to find himself on the business end of an opinion poll -- just as Shakespeare was neither first nor last to see the world and its doings as an ongoing performance.
In Rome, as in the republics that would attempt to replicate it, theater was politics, and vice versa. There, "even being a ruler is being an actor," Aldrete points out. So savvy politicians of the ancient world relied on the same thing savvy politicians of the less-ancient often do: oppo research.
Cicero , the ur-politico, would send friends of his to loiter around the theater, taking notes to see what kind of greeting each politician got when he entered the arena -- the better to see who was beloved by the people, and who was not. And his human clap-o-meters had a lot of information to assess. And particularly in the Greco-Roman world, crowds -- especially in cities -- were really good at communicating messages through rhythmic clapping, sometimes coupled with shouts.
We do still find some traces, the remnants of the claquers are now limited to television show sets and radio programs, in the form of applause symbols to tell the audience when they should be clapping, or even canned clapping and laughter. It is interesting to note as well that there are appropriate times and places for every applause.
It is considered perfectly normal to applaud a politician as he takes the stage before he even gives a speech, as a sign of approval and in recognition of past accomplishments.
In a religious setting, however, applauding is very rarely heard. While during a play it would be deemed rude to begin applauding in the middle of the performance, one often hears clapping throughout an opera in appreciation for a particularly difficult piece of music.
Applause can even evolve into higher gestures of approval, standing ovation anyone? Outsets and onsets! C1 the sound of people clapping their hands repeatedly to show enjoyment or approval of something such as a performance or speech :.
So let's hear some applause for these talented young performers. She made her exit from the stage to rapturous applause. It was several minutes before the applause died down. There was polite , muted applause when I finished speaking. The concert hall resounded with cheers and applause. Praising and applauding. Examples of applause. Were this applause directed to the cast alone, then the report would be of interest primarily in the history of performance.
From the Cambridge English Corpus. Rare edits betray some analog sources, and a little applause and coughing some live performances. As the final chords rang round the auditorium, the entire school rose in rapturous applause ; the tour had started well.
Today applause comes back at us roaring in all its mythic force, yet disconnected from anything whole. It is a ternary cavatine-type, free of leitmotifs and with an applause point worked in at the conclusion.
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