Etymologically
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clear

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /klɪə/, US /klɪr/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cler, borrowed from Old French cler (“clear, bright, shining”) (modern French clair),[2][3][4] from Latin clārus (“clear, loud; bright, distinct; illustrious”),[3][2][5] which is related to clāmāre (“to cry out, proclaim”) and calāre (“to call”).[2][6][7] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”), and explains the shift from sound to light by an identification of the spreading of sound with the spreading of light, comparing English loud used of colours.[3] It is related to claim, clarify, clarity, declare, claret and clarion.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bright, shining, giving light: about 1280[2] or 1297.[8][9] By about 1300 it also meant transparent, free from impurities, and morally pure.[3]

Semantic evolution

Of the weather, “free from cloud and mist”, is from 1297.[8][9] Of the mind, “discerning, sharp”, is from 1340.[9] The adverb, “completely, quite”, is from about 1300,[3] and “plainly, distinctly” from the early 14th century;[3] the sense survives in clear across.[4] The verb meant “to enlighten” about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius,[2] and by the late 14th century also “to cleanse, clarify” and “to prove innocent”.[3] “To free from obstructions” is from the 1520s, “to clear land of trees” from the 1690s, and “to leap clear over” from 1791.[3] In banking, “to settle accounts through a clearing house” is a later sense.[10][4] The noun in the clear is recorded from 1715, first meaning “in interior extent” and figuratively “free of suspicion” from 1928.[2][3] A clearing in a forest is from 1678, in American English,[2] and clearance from before 1563.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1280 – bright.[2]
  • 1297 – of weather, clear.[8][9]
  • c. 1300 – adverb, completely.[3]
  • 1340 – of the mind, sharp.[9]
  • c. 1380 – verb, to enlighten (Chaucer).[2]
  • 1520s – verb, to free from obstructions.[3]
  • before 1563 – clearance.[2]
  • 1678 – clearing, a cleared space in a forest.[2]
  • 1715 – in the clear.[2][3]
  • 1791 – verb, to leap over.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Free from clouds or haze: a clear day.
  2. Transparent; free from anything that clouds or dims.
  3. Free from flaws or impurities.
  4. Free from obstruction; open.
  5. Easily understood; evident.
  6. Easily seen or heard; distinct.
  7. Thinking or perceiving easily; lucid.
  8. Free from guilt or doubt.
  9. Without deductions; net.

Adverb

  1. Clearly, distinctly.
  2. Out of the way: stand clear.
  3. All the way; completely: clear to the end.

Verb

  1. To make or become clear or bright.
  2. To rid of obstructions or of unwanted things.
  3. To free from blame or doubt.
  4. To pass over or by without touching.
  5. To approve or be approved: cleared for take-off.
  6. Of a cheque, to pass through the banking system.

Noun

  1. A clear or open space.

Word family

  • clearable
  • clearer
  • clearly
  • clearness
  • clear-cut
  • clear-eyed
  • clear-headed
  • clear-sighted
  • clarity
  • claim
  • clarify
  • declare
  • claret
  • clarion
  • clairvoyance
  • chiaroscuro

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary distinguishes clear, limpid, lucid, pellucid and transparent, all meaning “not cloudy or opaque”.[10]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin