Present participle of clarify; making something clear, easier to understand, or free from confusion or ambiguity.
From Latin 'clarus' (clear, bright) plus the suffix '-ify' (to make). The word entered English through Old French 'clarifier' in the 14th century, initially used in both literal senses (making liquids clear) and figurative senses (making ideas clear).
The dual meaning of 'clarifying' - both making liquids clear by removing impurities and making ideas clear by removing confusion - reflects how medieval thinkers understood the mind and physical world as parallel systems. Wine clarification and thought clarification were seen as fundamentally similar processes of purification.
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