The word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette (the feminine diminutive of Old French clarin or clarion), or from Provencal clarin, “oboe”. It is ultimately from the Latin root clarus (“clear”).
It would seem, however, that its real roots are to be found among some of the various names for trumpets used around the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Clarion, clarin, and the Italian clarino are all derived from the medieval term claro, which referred to an early form of trumpet. This is probably the origin of the Italian clarinetto, itself a diminutive of clarino, and consequently of the European equivalents such as clarinette in French or the German Klarinette. According to Jojhann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that “it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet”. The English form clarinet is found as early as 1733, and the now-archaic clarionet appears from 1784 until the early years of the 20th century.
