clout
noun


- power and influence over other people or events

- power or influence, esp. in politics

- pull, influence

Cambridge Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

Old English clūt meant a piece of cloth, patch or piece of material. The word was related to words for a lump or clod, including Dutch kluit and Middle High German klōz/klūt.


From the idea of a piece of material came several specialised meanings. A clout could be a patch; in archery, it became a target for long-distance shooting. The word also developed the meaning “a blow”, probably through an earlier verbal sense.


The modern meaning “influence or pull” is much newer.


So one small word has travelled from rag → patch → blow → target → influence.



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POWER DOESN'T NEED A TITLE

There is an interesting difference between having authority and having clout.

Imagine two people in a company. One is the managing director. She can approve budgets, hire people and sign contracts. She has authority because her position gives it to her.

The other is a retired engineer who has worked with the company for 35 years. He has no official position at all. Yet when he says, “I wouldn't do that if I were you”, everyone stops and listens. He has clout.

That distinction matters because influence and authority are not the same thing. Authority is conferred. Clout is accumulated.

You can acquire clout through expertise, reputation, money, connections, popularity, access to decision-makers or a proven ability to get things done. A person may therefore have enormous clout without occupying the most senior position in the room.

And the reverse is also true. Someone can have an impressive title and remarkably little clout.

This is one reason the word is so useful. Influence is the neutral, general term. Clout is more concrete. It suggests that your influence has some weight behind it. Politicians have political clout; corporations have economic clout; celebrities have cultural clout.

The word also carries a faintly earthy quality. That may be partly because its history is full of physical things: cloth, patches, blows, targets. Clout has muscle.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS


authority, CLOUT, influence, leverage, muscle, pull, power, prestige, standing, sway, weight

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“A CLOUT-analysis can be more even useful than a stakeholder-analysis.”

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