Word of the Day

Sunday October 11, 2009

elucidate [ih-LOO-si-dayt]

transitive verb

To make clear or manifest; to render more intelligible; to illustrate; as, an example will elucidate the subject.

I get where the privacy-or-else camp is coming from. Though I could not have anticipated this when I married a soldier in 2002, I have come to care for troops and their families with a ferocity that words fail to elucidate.

Lily Burana, "A family's final right", Los Angeles Times, Mar 19, 2009
Culture and art at their best are potent wellsprings of meaning and insight. With their power to illuminate, motivate, or elucidate, they are indispensable to the nation's intellectual life. They mold our understanding of ourselves; they shape, at least in part, our perception of the world around us; they communicate - or confront - our deepest values.

Jeff Jacoby, "Thanks, but we don't need an arts czar", Boston Globe, Feb 8, 2009
"Yes, Evelina," she answered in an adamant tone of voice, "and when I have the complete record of what, I know, will be your triumphant vindication of the truth that it is possible and advisable for women to assert their divine right to choose a mate {16} for their sacred vocation of bearing the race, I shall proceed, as I have told you, to choose five other suitable young women to follow your example, and furnish them the money, up to the sum of a hundred thousand dollars, after having been convinced by your experience. Be careful to make the most minute records, of even the most emotional phases of the question, in this book for their guidance. Of course, they will never know the source of the data, and I will help you elucidate and arrange the book, after it is all accomplished."

Maria Thompson Davies (1872-1924) American actress and author. The Tinder Box (1913)

Origin of the Word

Elucidate, approximately 1568, derives from Late Latin elucidatus, past participle of elucidare to make clear, from ex- out, away + lucidus clear