This Middle English word is spelled as both “clepe” and “yclept,” with the past tense of each form spelled as “cleped” and “ycleped.” The verb, meaning “to call by the name of,” comes from the Old English “clipian,” meaning “to speak.” You’re more likely to find “clepe” in older poetry than in modern speech. In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare wrote, “They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase / Soil our addition,” essentially meaning, “They call us drunks and pigs and ruin our reputation.”