claqueur
/klɑːˈkɜː(ɹ)/
Etymology
From French claqueur.
claqueur means A member of the claque employed to applaud during a theatre performance. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
claqueur is pronounced /klɑːˈkɜː(ɹ)/.
Why “claqueur” is a great word
CLAQUEUR — [Noun] A person hired to applaud enthusiastically or to create a favorable impression at a theater performance or public event. From French claqueur, from claque ("a slap, clap; a hired applauding group"). First attested in English use 1830–40. Unlike an "applauder," who claps from genuine feeling, or the collective "claque," which names the organized scheme, a claqueur is the individual mercenary of acclaim. He is the orchestrated thunder in an otherwise tepid house, the strategically placed cackle that primes a reluctant audience, the man whose palms strike together not from feeling but from contract—a professional ghost in the machinery of public sentiment, proving that applause can be a commodity and conviction a performance.
noun
- A member of the claque employed to applaud during a theatre performance.““Many a clever fellow fails through life, because the silly fellows, whom half a word well spoken could make his claqueurs, turn him into ridicule. Whatever you are, avoid the fault of most reading men: in a word, don’t be a prig!””