clarifica

Forms

clarifica (third-person singular present clarifică, past participle clarificat, third-person subjunctive clarifice) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French clarifier, according to DELR and the DA, and DEX, MDA2 and MDN add Latin as a second, learned source: borrowed from Latin clārificō.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin names Italian chiarificare beside the French verb, and DELR derives from it, or from a Romanianised form, the obsolete variant chiarifica.^[7][2] The Latin verb is clārus (“clear, bright”) with -ficō (“making”), and in Church Latin it meant “to make illustrious, glorify”.^[1][8] Within Romanian it can be read as clar with the suffix -ifica.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862, which refers clarifica to limpezi “to clear (a liquid)”.^[2][7][9]

Semantic evolution

The DA in the early 20th century gave two senses, clearing a liquid or a substance and clearing up an obscure or confused matter.^[3] The concrete sense is now obsolete in the dictionaries, and the verb is used of thoughts, situations and problems.^[5][4] Dimitrescu notes that the press has used the concrete sense again since 2009, after the English verb clarify.^[10] Its family includes clarificație “clarification”, recorded from 1844 before the verb itself, and clarificator “clarifying”, from 1871.^[2]

Timeline

• 1844 – the noun clarificație in Barițiu, after the French clarification.^[2]
• 1862 – clarifica in Pontbriant's dictionary, the first record of the verb.^[2][7]
• 1871 – the adjective clarificator in Laurian and Massim.^[2]
• 2009 – the concrete sense “to clear a liquid” used again after English.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something clear or easier to understand, to explain or desluși; reflexive, to become clear.^[4][5][1]
2. To clear up a situation.^[5][11]
3. (dated) To clear or purify a liquid.^[5][3]

Word family

• clarificare
• clarificator

Related words

• clar
• limpezi

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. clarifica
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. clarifica
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 429
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. clarifica
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. clarifico
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 137
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. clarifica
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional