Etymologically
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claresco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɫaːˈreːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [klaˈrɛs.ko][1]

Forms

clārēscō (present infinitive clārēscere, perfect active clāruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin clāreō (“to be bright”) + -scō,[2][3] from clārus (“clear, bright”).[4] De Vaan traces clārus to Proto-Italic *klāro- (“loud”) and Proto-Indo-European *klh₁-ro- (“loud, sonorous”); the shift from “loud” to “clear, bright” is paralleled in Old High German hel (“loud”) and hell (“clearly resounding; shining”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Lucretius on;[4] he writes that one thing will become clear from another, alid ex alio clarescet.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic or post-Augustan prose.[3] Of sound it is to become loud or audible, as in Virgil's “the sounds of arms grow loud”, clārēscunt sonitūs.[2][3] Of light it is to become bright, to shine or become visible: Seneca has the day growing bright, and Tacitus buildings shining with lights.[2][3] Figuratively it is to become clear or plain to the understanding, in Lucretius and Quintilian.[2][3] Of character it is to become famous or notorious: Tacitus speaks of becoming famous by any crime and by great enmities, and Suetonius of two families of the Domitian clan that became illustrious.[3] It continues in Italian chiarire.[4] Church Latin has it as to shine forth, become clear or visible.[6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of becoming clear to the mind.[2][4][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of sounds growing loud.[2][7]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of the day growing bright.[2][7]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of becoming famous.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of sound: to become loud or audible.[2][3][1]
  2. To become bright, to shine, become visible.[2][3][1][6]
  3. To become clear or plain to the understanding.[2][3][1]
  4. To become famous or notorious.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • inclārēscō
  • perclaresco

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de