From Middle English cloud, cloude, clod, clud, clude, from Old English clūd, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, *klutaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gel-.
Cognate with Scots clood, clud, Dutch kluit ("lump, mass, clod"), German Low German Kluute ("lump, mass, ball"), German Kloß ("lump, ball, dumpling"), Danish klode ("sphere, orb, planet"), Swedish klot ("sphere, orb, ball, globe"), Icelandic klót ("knob on a sword's hilt"). Related to English clod, clot, clump, club. Largely replaced Middle English wolken, wolkne from Old English wolcen (whence Modern English welkin), the commonest Germanic word (compare Dutch wolk, German Wolke).
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