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Origin and history of clarify

clarify(v.)

early 14c., "make illustrious, glorify, make known" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French clarifiier "clarify, make clear, explain" (12c.), from Late Latin clarificare "to glorify," literally "to make clear," from Latin clarificus "brilliant," from clarus "clear, distinct" (see clear (adj.)) + combining form of facere "to make, to do" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").

Meaning "make clear, purify" (especially of liquors) is from early 15c. in English. Figurative sense of "to free from obscurity, render intelligible" is from 1823. Intransitive sense of "grow or become clear" is from 1590s. Related: Clarified; clarifying.

also from early 14c.

Entries linking to clarify

clear(adj.)

c. 1300, "giving light, shining, luminous;" also "not turbid; transparent, allowing light to pass through; free from impurities; morally pure, guiltless, innocent;" of colors, "bright, pure;" of weather or the sky or sea, "not stormy; mild, fair, not overcast, fully light, free from darkness or clouds;" of the eyes or vision, "clear, keen;" of the voice or sound, "plainly audible, distinct, resonant;" of the mind, "keen-witted, perspicacious;" of words or speech, "readily understood, manifest to the mind, lucid" (an Old English word for this was sweotol "distinct, clear, evident"); of land, "cleared, leveled;" from Old French cler "clear" (of sight and hearing), "light, bright, shining; sparse" (12c., Modern French clair), from Latin clarus "clear, loud," of sounds; figuratively "manifest, plain, evident," in transferred use, of sights, "bright, distinct;" also "illustrious, famous, glorious" (source of Italian chiaro, Spanish claro), from PIE *kle-ro-, from root *kele- (2) "to shout."

The prehistoric sense evolution to light and color involves an identification of the spreading of sound and the spreading of light (compare English loud, used of colors; German hell "clear, bright, shining," of pitch, "distinct, ringing, high").

Also in Middle English "beautiful, magnificent, excellent" (c. 1300); of possession or title, "unrestricted, unconditional, absolute," early 15c. Of complexion, from c. 1300. Sense of "free from encumbrance," later largely nautical, developed c. 1500. Meaning "obvious to the senses" is from 1835. Clear-sighted is from 1580s (clear-eyed is from 1520s); clear-headed is from 1709. For coast is clear see clear (v.).

clarification(n.)

1610s, "act of clearing or refining" (especially of liquid substances), from French clarification, from Late Latin clarificationem (nominative clarificatio), noun of action from past participle stem of clarificare "to make clear" (see clarify). The meaning "statement revising or expanding an earlier statement but stopping short of a correction" is attested by 1969, originally in newspapers.