claro

Forms

claro (feminine clara, masculine plural claros, feminine plural claras)^[1] The noun is masculine, plural claros; the adverb and the interjection are invariable.^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had both claro and craro.^[2] A private letter of 1570 still writes craro, and Feijó's spelling guide of 1734 enters Claro beside Craro.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin clārus (“clear, bright; loud”).^[2][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing that displaced the older popular form Old Galician-Portuguese craro.^[1] Houaiss records both forms in the 13th century, and Lorenzo's chronology dates the popular form to the 13th century and the learned one to the 14th, though it also quotes the learned form from a 13th-century collection of songs.^[2][5] The REW lists the Spanish and Portuguese forms only in brackets, apart from the inherited words of the other languages.^[6] For the Spanish word Corominas speaks instead of a second layer of the vocabulary, with a late and conservative treatment of initial /kl/, but not a learned word.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician claro, Spanish claro, Catalan clar, French clair, Italian chiaro and Romanian chiar.^[6][1]

The Latin adjective first meant “loud, sonorous”, then “clear, bright”.^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs *klāro- (“loud”) and Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₁-ro- (“loud, sonorous”), the root of calō (“to call”) and clāmō (“to shout”), and compares the same shift from sound to light in hel (“loud”) and hell (“bright”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century for a voice, começou logo en voz alta e clara / a cantar “at once began to sing in a loud, clear voice”, and for olive oil que seja ben claro e muit' esmerado “that it be very clear and well refined”.^[5] The Crónica Troiana has the word for loud voices and for a chamber “as bright by night as if it were day”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the word applied first to sound and light, then to transparent water and cloudless skies, to pale colours and to what is easily understood or evident, and in poetry to the illustrious.^[2][10] Bluteau (1712) gives noite clara “a moonlit night” and ar claro “clear air”.^[11]

Morais (1813) records the noun: in painting the lit part of a picture, a place clear of trees, and a gap in the ranks of troops.^[12] Houaiss adds a blank space in a text or in printing, a momentary blank of the mind, and in Brazil an open field in the caatinga.^[2] The adverb “clearly” and the interjection “of course!” are newer entries in the Lisbon Academy's dictionary.^[13] Expressions include passar a noite em claro “to spend a sleepless night” and às claras “openly”.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – both claro and craro are recorded; the Cantigas de Santa Maria have en voz alta e clara.^[2][5]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (copied 1380–1425) uses the word.^[16]
• 1562 – Cardoso's first dictionary lists it.^[17]
• 1570 – a private letter writes craro.^[3]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists noite clara and ar claro.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó enters Claro and Craro.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais records the noun senses in painting and in forestry.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Giving light; bright, shining: a luz clara da manhã.^[2][18][1]
2. Full of light, well lit: uma cozinha clara.^[2][18]
3. Transparent, limpid: água clara.^[2][18]
4. Of the sky or weather: cloudless, clear.^[2][1]
5. Of a colour: pale, light; of eyes, blue, green or grey.^[2][1]
6. Of a sound: distinct, ringing.^[2][10]
7. Easy to understand; plain: uma explicação clara.^[2][1]
8. Evident, certain: Ficou claro que ninguém sabia.^[2][1]
9. (literary) Illustrious, famous.^[2][10]

Noun

1. A gap or open space where something is lacking; a clearing in a wood.^[2][1]
2. A blank space in a text or in printed matter.^[2][13]
3. A momentary blank of the mind.^[2][13]
4. (painting) The lightest part of a picture.^[2][13]

Adverb

1. Clearly: Fala claro!^[2][13][1]

Interjection

1. Of course!, certainly: — Vens? — Claro!^[2][13][1]

Word family

• aclarar
• clarão
• claramente
• clarear
• clareira
• clareza
• claro-escuro
• esclarecer

Related words

• claridade
• clarificar
• claror
• Latin clārus
• Galician claro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. claro
3. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. claro
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. claro
5. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. claro
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 95
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. clārus
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. claro
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. claro
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 403
13. ^ a b c d e f Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. claro
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. claro
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2134
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. claro
17. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. claro
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. claro