Etymograph

English

elucidate

Elucidate comes from Late Latin ēlūcidātus ‘lightened, having been lightened’, and goes back to ēlūcidō.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEēlūcidō‘to lighten, enlighten’
  2. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEēlūcidātus‘lightened, having been lightened’perfect passive participle of ēlūcidō
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1675elucidate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEēlūcidō‘to lighten, enlighten’
  2. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEēlūcidātus‘lightened, having been lightened’perfect passive participle of ēlūcidō
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1675elucidate

Earliest quotation: 1675, Richard Baxter, London: […] Robert White: “Let me hear vvhat your ovvn conceptions are of…”

The story

From Late Latin ēlūcidātus, perfect passive participle of ēlūcidō (‘to lighten, enlighten’) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ē(x)- (‘out, from’) + lūcidus (‘bright, clear, understandable’) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), literally “to make light of (something)”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (‘bright; to see; to shine’).

Every English word from Late Latin ēlūcidō

Today it means

verb To make (something) lucid (“bright, luminous; also, clear, transparent”).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin ēlūcidō / elucidate

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