claritas

Forms

clāritās f (genitive clāritātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin clārus (“clear, bright; famous”) + -tās.^[2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨clārus⟩ to Proto-Italic *klāro- (“loud”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-ro- (“loud, sonorous”); the shift from “loud” to “clear, bright” is paralleled in Old High German hel (“loud”) beside German hell (“bright”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[5] who lists among the excellences of the parts of the body speed in the feet and a clear, resonant voice.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is loudness or clearness of the voice, and also distinction and renown: he asks Antony whether he had grown tired of his fortune, rank, fame and glory.^[2] It is most frequent after Augustus: Quintilian uses it of clearness of expression, Seneca of the brightness of daylight that hides the stars, and Pliny the Elder of clearness of sight and of the brightness of stars.^[2][6] Pliny also has Clāritās Iūlia as the name of a town in southern Spain.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “clarity, light, brightness, glory, renown”.^[7] English clarity (c. 1300) came from it through Old French clarté, at first meaning “brightness, glory”.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a clear voice and of renown.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the brightness of daylight.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of clearness of style.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – English clarity through French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Loudness, clearness of the voice.^[2]
2. Clearness, vividness of expression.^[2][1]
3. Brightness, brilliance of light or colour; clearness of vision.^[2][6][1][7]
4. Distinction, renown, fame.^[2][1][7]

Related words

• clārus
• English clarity

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes glōria, renown pictured as something said about a person, from clāritās, renown pictured as something bright that is seen.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper